The country is voting in both presidential and parliamentary polls. Incumbent Bukele has virtually no competition.
El Salvador's voters primarily vote in presidential and parliamentary elections that contest trade-offs between security and democracy.
With his approval ratings soaring and virtually no competition, President Nayib Boukre will almost certainly seek a second term.
For the first time since the end of its civil war in 1992, the Central American country will vote on a state of emergency imposed against Bukele's crackdown on gangs, which has reduced murder rates but has been criticized as a human rights violation. was invited.
Bukele, Latin America's most popular leader according to opinion polls, is expected to extend his control over El Salvador's legislative assembly in Sunday's election.
Despite questions about his constitutionality, an estimated 69.9 percent of voters support his re-election. Before Bukele, presidents of El Salvador had historically been limited to one term.
Bukele has had little need to campaign for himself and has focused on promoting his Nuevas Idea party, which holds 56 of the 84 members of parliament.
Under the reforms he led, the overall number of seats was reduced to 60, which critics say will make it more difficult for smaller parties to win enough votes.
In 2022, Congress also approved a law allowing Salvadorans to vote abroad. Under the reform, all foreign votes tilting in favor of Mr. Boucle will be counted in the Department of San Salvador, which holds the most undecided seats, according to the Human Rights NGO Washington Secretariat for Latin America. It is said to become.
The conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), which alternately ruled for nearly 30 years, were discredited by corruption and incompetence. Voter turnout for their presidential candidates is in the low single digits.
“Unwavering loyalty”
Mr. Boucle, who frequently sparred with foreign leaders and adversaries on social media, defeated El Salvador's traditional political parties in 2019 by pledging to end gang violence and revitalize the stagnant economy. took power.
He has touted the success of a tough security strategy in which authorities have suspended civil liberties and arrested thousands of suspected gang members without charge. Detention has led to a decline in homicide rates nationwide, a game-changer for the impoverished Central American country, which was once ranked among the world's most dangerous.
Juan Carlos Rosales, 44, a systems engineer from the capital San Salvador, told Reuters: “I would vote for Bukele given his achievements so far.” “The security improvements are obvious.”
Still, despite Bukele's stronghold, some analysts question how long voters will support his strongman approach, especially as more and more people feel the pain. There is.
Under his rule, El Salvador has had one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, with an estimated 2 percent of the adult population incarcerated.
Bukele credits his “mano dura” or “iron fist” tactics for reducing the number of murders to just 7.8 per 100,000 people, the lowest in Central America.
Human rights groups have warned that El Salvador's democracy is under attack.
Bukele largely dismissed these concerns, at one point changing his profile on X to read “World's Coolest Dictator.”
His biggest challenge is that Central America's economy was the slowest growing economy during his time in power. More than a quarter of El Salvadorans live in poverty.
The International Monetary Fund, which is negotiating a $1.3 billion bailout with El Salvador, described the country's fiscal situation as “fragile” in late 2023.
In a post on X this week, Bukele vowed to bring about change. “There is still a huge amount of work to do, but we are solving decades of looting and neglect one step at a time,” he said.