New Ideas, the dominant political party of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who is known for his support of Bitcoin (BTC), has achieved a strong majority in the country’s legislature.
According to the electoral body’s announcement on February 20, the New Ideas party won 54 out of the 60 seats in the legislature, ensuring Bukele’s ability to pursue his political agenda. These results were part of the elections that took place on February 4. Even before the official results were released, Bukele declared victory on February 5, claiming that the New Ideas party had secured 58 seats instead of 54.
Despite the president’s assertions of victory in the legislature, opposition groups have called for the results to be invalidated, citing allegations of voter fraud. Vamos, Nuestro Tiempo, and the Nationalist Republican Alliance have reportedly identified 69 “anomalies” in the electoral process. The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front party has made similar accusations of fraud and voter manipulation.
Bukele assumed office in June 2019 and has become one of the few world leaders to openly support cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. In September 2021, he urged the Salvadoran government to adopt BTC as legal tender, a move that was supported by the New Ideas party’s strong majority in the government.
While Bukele has branded himself as the “world’s coolest dictator,” his tenure as the country’s leader has been marred by reports of human rights violations in his efforts to combat gang violence and homicides in El Salvador. A United Nations report from March 2023 highlighted “mass detentions” that took place since 2022, resulting in the death and mistreatment of many individuals.
During his time in office, El Salvador’s Supreme Court amended the rules to allow the president to serve two consecutive terms, rather than waiting for 10 years before seeking reelection. Bukele resigned from his position in December 2023 to focus on his campaign, leaving Claudia Rodríguez de Guevara as acting president until June 2024.
Bukele is scheduled to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. on February 22. The event will be attended by far-right members of the Republican Party in the United States, as well as Argentine President Javier Milei, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and former United States President Donald Trump.
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