After the Salvadorean general elections of 4 February, on 29 April the outgoing (lame duck) Legislative Assembly dominated by the ruling party, Nuevas Ideas (NI) approved a modification to Article 248 of the Constitution. It must be ratified by the incoming legislature, which was sworn in on 2 May, to enter into force, and will establish a new way to amend a constitutional provision.  

Previously, amendments required a simple majority approval by a sitting legislature and a subsequent ratification from two-thirds of the incoming legislature. The Article's revised text will add that constitutional amendments may be ratified by a three fourths majority within one legislature.  

This decision has been criticized as an attempt to diminish what few checks on the executive power are left, enabling the incoming legislature to expedite amendments proposed by the President (54 out of 60 incoming Assembly members belong to NI). The amendment overly empowers short-term legislative majorities, undermining the longer-term effectiveness of the institution. Opposition members have rejected this process because of how it was rushed without prior discussion or analysis.  

Sources: El Faro, Infobae, Amnesty International, El Pais, DW 

On 4 February, Nayib Bukele was re-elected as president by 84.6 per cent of cast votes. This is more than ten times the number of votes won by the second-place candidate.  The Tribunal Supremo Electoral carried out a recount of 30 per cent of presidential ballots and all legislative votes, due to significant glitches in its results reporting software and website. Voter turnout was 52.6 per cent.  

Bukele ran for a second term thanks to a 2021 Supreme Court decision that bypassed a constitutional prohibition on consecutive re-election.  

His party, Nuevas Ideas, will obtain almost total control of the National Assembly (54 out of 60 congress members).  

OAS observers highlighted that elections took place in peaceful conditions, although in the context of a nearly two year old “state of exception” that was said to have impacted free speech and competition. Also noted were technological, logistical and training shortcomings, which contributed to a significant delay in the transmission of results. 

Compared to the last legislative elections, the number of women candidates increased from 36 to 39 per cent. Out of the other five presidential candidates only one, Ana Marina Murillo, is a woman. 

Note: This report was updated on 18 March for accuracy and comprehensiveness. 

Sources: El Faro, Tribunal Supremo Electoral, Organization of American States, The New York Times, El Pais (1) , Washington Post, El Pais (2), France 24, IFES 

President Nayib Bukele’s government has imposed a military siege on the department of Cabañas, one of El Salvador’s 14 administrative regions. According to Bukele’s statements on social media, the objective of the operation, which involves 7,000 military and 1,000 police officers, is to prevent gang members from fleeing and to cut their supply lines. Even though the government has carried out similar operations in towns and cities since it first declared a state of emergency in March 2022, it is the first time this kind of operation is implemented in an entire administrative region, which has a population of around 150,000 people.  

Sources: El Pais, Al Jazeera

The Legislative Assembly approved reforms to the Organized Crime Law that will increase sentences for gang leaders and will temporarily enable mass trials of up to 900 defendants as part of the structure of a criminal enterprise, instead of being processed individually. Mass hearings and arraignments had already taken place and been criticised by UN and human rights experts as infringing due process rights, including presumption of innocence. El Salvador now has the world’s highest incarceration rate, and mass incarceration during the country’s state of emergency has led to a significant backlog in cases, which is how the government justifies the measure. To this day, nearly 72,000 people have been detained, accused of collaborating or participating in gangs. 

Sources: El Pais (1), El Faro, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, elsalvador.com, El Pais (2), Statista