El Salvador’s 2024 general election: Iron fist policies and unconstitutional continuity

Abstract

In 2024, three decades after the “election of the century” that marked the country’s transition to democracy, Salvadorans re-elected Nayib Bukele as president despite an explicit constitutional ban. Due to the government’s success in addressing public security, Bukele and his party, Nuevas Ideas, won by a landslide majority. After having one of the highest crime rates in Latin America, in 2023, El Salvador registered 2.4 homicides per 100,000 people, the lowest figure in the region. The world’s coolest dictator, as Bukele labels himself, was re-elected with 84.5% of votes. After passing an electoral reform that reduced the size of the Legislative Assembly, Nuevas Ideas won 54 of 60 seats – confirming the collapse of the party system that ruled the country for decades. Thus, with the opposition in ruins and amid an evident regression towards authoritarianism, Bukele begins a new five-year term with absolute power over El Salvador.