Preliminary data show that the New Ideas party would get a qualified majority. Analyst and academic Óscar Picardo sees the new configuration as a risk of losing balance between legislative, executive and judicial powers.
The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) has scrutinized 86% of the minutes, preliminary data, updated until 12:30 on March 1, show that New Ideas has a wide advantage over other parties, both by mayors and by the Legislative Assembly.
The calculation made by FOCUS TV shows that the Assembly for the period 2021 – 2024 would be made up of 52 deputies of New Ideas, 5 of WIN, 7 of the alliance New Ideas -Win, 7 of ARENA, 5 of the FMLN and the remaining parties would each have a legislator.
The data show that allied parties to the government have 64 seats, which is more than a qualified majority.
You could read: New Ideas with wide advantage in preliminary election count
The New Ideas (NI) party, which Bukele helped form and which was contesting a first-round pick, alongside the Grand National Alliance (Win), which brought him to power in 2019, got together much more than the half of the votes for Parliament, according to the preliminary ballot of 86% of the votes, broadcast by the TSE.
The real-time preliminary count allows the TSE to mark the number of votes each political organization receives.
The official count will begin on Tuesday, where it will be determined how many of the 84 seats in the Assembly correspond to each party.
With an absolute majority, Bukele will be able to influence the appointments to the Supreme Court of Justice, the Comptroller’s Office and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, with which he has had disputes.
And if it reaches a qualified majority (56 seats), it will be able to undertake further reforms such as the constitutional ones.
In addition: “The electorate decided to concentrate power on one person,” says FMLN general secretary
Analyst and academic Óscar Picardo predicts an Assembly that will only push the button in favor of Bukele and there will not be much discussion, which is a risk.
In a television interview on Monday, Picardo warned that the change in the number of deputies in the Legislative Assembly could lead to a restructuring of the state, this is a risk because the balance between the powers, legislative, executive and judicial is lost.
“A president aspires to have a less belligerent Assembly. But the risk of having full control of the Assembly because it appoints the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), Court of Auditors (CCR), Attorney General’s Office (FGR ) generates a democratic concern, which loses the balance of power and especially considering that behind New Ideas prevails the figure of a person who is the president not that of a political institute structured with a theoretical, ideological basis, everything is Nayib Bukele, “Picardo said.
According to the TSE count, ARENA and FMLN will be a minority in the new Assembly.
New Ideas too won in 16 mayoralties of the 19 municipalities that San Salvador has, the most populous department in the country.
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For the director of the Institute of Human Rights of the Jesuit Central American University (UCA), José María Tojeira, the delivery of a $ 300 voucher to needy families, food and supplies to face the COVID-19 had echo in a population hit by the pandemic, in a country where external debt reaches 90% of GDP.
On February 9, 2020, Bukele was accompanied by heavily armed military and police officers to enter the Legislative Assembly amid MPs ’refusal to approve a loan for a security plan proposed by his government. This is just one of the actions for Bukele to be seen by the opposition as authoritarian and disrespectful of democratic norms.