On Thursday, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) handed over the certification that accredits Nayib Bukele and Felix Ulloa as president and vice president elected, respectively.
During the ceremony, at the National Theatre in downtown San Salvador, the president of the TSE, Dora Martínez de Barahona, said that Bukele was re-elected on February 4, with 97.8 percent of the valid votes cast from abroad and 84.6 percent of the valid votes in the national territory.
“Thousands of people worked hard inside and outside the country so that the day would go smoothly and these objectives were achieved in a great way,” he said. He also said the vote abroad was a success despite “inconveniences outside the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.”
The president’s words contrasted with a series of complaints and irregularities that occurred at the end of the election day on February 4, including remarks that occurred in polling stations abroad.
“On behalf of the institutionality of the TSE, our sincere congratulations to the New Ideas party, and to the citizen Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez, citizen elected president of the Republic, and Felix Ulloa son, the elected vice president of the Republic,” Martinez added.
He also said that, with the delivery of credentials to the president and vice president-elect, “the will of the majorities materializes” and thanked the Salvadorans for “their confidence in the institutionality of the TSE.” He said so, despite the fact that a public opinion poll, such as the one presented last December by the José Simeón Cañas Central American University, UCA, shows that 51.6% of the population has little or no confidence in the TSE.
After the words of the president of the TSE, Bukele and Ulloa went so far as the credentials that accredit them to serve as president and vice president of El Salvador.
Delivery of credentials to Nayib Bukele and Felix Ulloa. Photo: LPG / Dennis Argueta
After the delivery ceremony, Vice President Felix Ulloa said that the delivery of credentials to the presidential formula by the TSE “is the coronation of a totally democratic process.”
At the end of the event, hundreds of Salvadorans were waiting for the re-elected outside the National Palace.
Some of the attendees of the event were the head of the New Ideas bench in the Legislative Assembly, Christian Guevara, the president of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ), Elsea López Jerez, and the Chief of Staff of Bukele, Carolina Recinos.
The passage on the 1st East Street of the Historic Center of San Salvador was restricted in the afternoon.
Outside the National Theatre, members of the Armed Forces conducted a team review of all media outlets attending coverage of the event.
Asism, the surroundings of the Historic Center were closed and militarized from the early hours of the afternoon. Militarized, this is the surroundings of the Historic Center of San Salvador prior to the accreditation of Nayib Bukele.
The delivery of Bukele and Ulloa’s credentials, in addition, comes five days after the TSE signed the resolution of the results of the presidential election and notified the contending parties; and three days after what the TSE planned.
TSE Judge Noel Orellana had assured a week ago that the accreditation to Bukele and Ulloa would be handed over on February 26 to appoint them as “officially elected” to the post, following the February 4 elections.
According to official TSE data, New Ideas presidential candidates were elected with 84.6 percent of the valid votes, 43.4% of the national roll.
This article has been translated from the original which first appeared in La Prensa Grafica