El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele declared himself the winner of Sunday’s (Feb 4) presidential elections, hours after polls closed but before the electoral body announced official results.
In a post on X, President Bukele said, “According to our numbers, we won the presidential election with more than 85% of the votes and a minimum of 58 out of 60 Assembly deputies.”
Since coming to power, Bukele, 42, has launched a severe crackdown on criminal organisations in the country. During the election, Bukele campaigned on the success of this crackdown under which authorities suspended civil liberties to arrest over 75,000 Salvadorans without charges.
The arrests led to a sharp decline in nationwide murder rates. On Sunday, Bukele cast his ballot at a voting centre on one of the capital San Salvador’s main avenues before giving a press conference.
“So, if we have already overcome our cancer, with metastases that were the gangs, now we only have to recover and be the person we always wanted to be,” Bukele told reporters and urged citizens to cast their votes.
