Officialism ignores distancing measures during election campaign start El Salvador News

While the Minister of Health, Francisco Alabi, advised the population not to lower their guard during the pandemic, the parties WIN and New Ideas made their campaign starts for deputies without avoiding crowds.

The candidates to deputies for the 84 seats of the Legislative Assembly and the Central American Parliament (Parlacen) they officially started the election campaign this Sunday for the February 28, 2021 elections.

“According to Article 81 of the Constitution, from this December 27, 2020, the electoral propaganda of candidacies for deputations to the Parliament and the Legislative Assembly is lawful. This term ends on February 24. of 2021 (Art. 175 Electoral Code) “, the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) has reported through its Twitter account.

SEE: Candidates for deputies can request the vote from this 27 Dec.

TSE president Dora Esmeralda de Barahona spoke last Wednesday about the start of the campaign and said that in the proselytizing campaign candidates must take into account the recommendations already established and avoid crowds.

“These are recommendations that must comply with what has been established by the Ministry of Health, such as holding rallies in open spaces, in terms of visits made by candidates to different municipalities, distancing, use of masks, alcohol ice etc. “, warned the president of the collegiate body.

However, despite the recommendations of TSE, MINSAL itself and even at the risk of contracting the virus the parties WIN and New Ideas, which will compete for the next legislative and municipal elections on February 28, held massive political acts of start of campaign.

The first was WIN, who held a campaign launch event at the party’s national headquarters from 10:00 am According to posts on their social networks at this event was not respected the social distancing as measures to prevent COVID-19.

At the event, Deputy Guillermo Gallegos reiterated the party’s support for the government. “Today WIN is a strong, big party that will mark an era in the next election. We will continue to support President Nayib Bukele in the next legislature,” he said.

SEE MORE: These are the positions that political parties will occupy on the ballot for the 2021 elections

For his part, the president of GUANYA, Nelson Guardado, expressed his pride in leading this party. “We have 10 deputies in the Assembly and those who are going for re-election are all going to come out victorious,” he said.
Likewise, the New Ideas party called on its militants to concentrate on the different departments and do what they called a “hundred caravan” where there was also agglomeration.

To this, the ARENA party did not hold the traditional campaign opening event in Izalco as in previous years, but during the morning of this Sunday some party members attended a mass in a church in Sonsonate.

“Taken by the hand of God, we began this electoral process. Due to the pandemic, we could not fill the streets of Izalco with the colors of peace, progress and freedom, as has traditionally been our tradition, but we did attend a mass at Dolors Church, “the ARENA party posted on its official account.

The FMLN announced that the start of the campaign would coincide with its XXXIX National Convention, which was virtual and began at 8:00 am

“We are going with the decision to win, and to keep at least the number of deputies we have right now and we aspire to grow a little more, but looking for the Legislative Assembly to maintain its balance of plurality as it has done so far “We hope to continue to have a real impact on the country ‘s decisions, this is the aspiration for the transformation of El Salvador,” said MP Nidia Díaz.

Although the election campaign began legally this Sunday, several candidates had already carried out proselytizing activities in advance, in recent weeks fences, posters and muppets with photographs of candidates from various political parties were already visible on the country streets.

ALSO READ: Magistrate Guillermo Wellman: “Proselytizing campaign can be done on social media”

Even the Supreme Electoral Court was studying several cases of advanced social media campaigns.
According to the TSE calendar, the election campaign for mayors will begin in a month, on January 27. The 2021 electoral roll will be 5,389,017 Salvadorans eligible to vote.