UPDATE 3-El Salvador President Bukele poised for a landslide as polls close

Voting finished on Sunday afternoon in El Salvador elections expected to hand President Nayib Bukele another landslide victory, as voters cast aside concerns about erosion of democracy to reward him for a fierce gang crackdown that improved security in the Central American country. Bukele, 42, appears poised to become the first Salvadoran president in almost a century to be re-elected.

Voting finished on Sunday afternoon in El Salvador elections expected to hand

President Nayib Bukele another landslide victory, as voters cast aside concerns about erosion of democracy to reward him for a fierce gang crackdown that

improved security in the Central American country.

Bukele, 42, appears poised to become the first Salvadoran president in almost a century to be re-elected. Wildly popular, Bukele has campaigned on the success of his security strategy under which authorities suspended civil liberties to arrest more than 75,000 Salvadorans without charges. The detentions led to a sharp decline in nationwide murder rates and transformed a country of 6.3 million people that was once among the world's most dangerous.

But some analysts have said the mass incarceration of 1% of the population is not sustainable long-term. Just before polls closed at 5 p.m. Sunday, Bukele cast his ballot at a voting center on one of the capital San Salvador's main avenues before giving a press conference, his first public appearance in the campaign.

"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," said Bukele. "I believe El Salvador, after half a century of suffering now it is our time to move forward." He urged Salvadorans to cast their vote, including for congress, where he said his New Ideas party needed support to continue his anti-gang fight.

As polls closed, New Ideas was setting up stages in the capital's main square, preparing for election night celebrations. Results for the next 2024-2027 legislative assembly are expected around 10 p.m., followed by presidential results.

Polls show most voters appear set to reward Bukele for decimating the crime groups that made life intolerable in El Salvador and fueled waves of migration to the United States. Five other presidential candidates are contesting the elections, including politicians from the former leftist guerrilla Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA). These two traditional parties between them governed for 30 years until 2019.

"We have to continue the changes that are happening in our country - positive changes. We have no crime, tourism has skyrocketed," said construction worker Victor Lopez, 65, who was among the first people to vote at the same center where Bukele cast his ballot. "We cannot let the corrupt people from before have power again," Lopez added.

Pre-election polling put support in the single digits for the FMLN and ARENA candidates, with voters fed up after decades of traditional politics marked by violence and corruption. Voting centers were plastered with Bukele's New Ideas cyan blue, with supporters wearing celestial Nayib t-shirts. There was very little presence of support for the opposition.

"The country has changed so much, we don't want it to fall into the hands of the past, so I'm happy to vote for him," said Roberto Hernandez, a 46-year-old accountant in the capital. "The opposition is where it is because of its actions." He dismissed concerns about authoritarianism, but said Bukele needs to address the economy in a second term.

AUTHORITARIAN DRIFT A firebrand politician who often spars with foreign leaders and critics on social media, Bukele came to power in 2019 trouncing traditional parties with a vow to eliminate gang violence and rejuvenate a stagnant economy.

He has used his New Ideas party's supermajority in the legislative assembly to reshape courts and institutions, solidifying his grip on key parts of the government. He also championed the introduction of Bitcoin as legal tender, drawing criticism from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). El Salvador's Supreme Electoral Tribunal last year permitted him to run for a second term even though the country's constitution prohibits it. Opponents voiced fears Bukele would seek to rule for life, following President Daniel Ortega from next-door Nicaragua.

When asked by reporters if he planned to reform the constitution to include indefinite re-election in the press conference, Bukele said he "didn't think a constitutional reform would be necessary," but did not directly answer questions about if he would try and run for a third term. Rights groups have said El Salvador's democracy is under attack. Bukele has taken such concerns in stride, at one point changing his profile on X, the social media platform, to say: "World's coolest dictator."

Salvadorans seem unfazed, with polls showing about 80% of them support him. Once re-elected, Bukele's biggest challenge is likely to be the economy, Central America's slowest growing during his time in power. More than a quarter of Salvadorans live in poverty.

Some voters said it was already a deciding factor, along with worries about critics being silenced, due process violations, and democracy. "I don't like that he has put a lot of people (in jail) that haven't done anything, that is a problem," said civil engineer Miguel Medina, 73, who is supporting the FMLN.

"Having a balance of power would be a triumph for us." He added he was worried about the rising costs of food and housing.

Extreme poverty has doubled and private investment has tumbled under Bukele. There has not been much momentum on his highly publicized plans for Bitcoin City, a tax-free crypto haven powered by geothermal energy from a volcano. The IMF, which is negotiating a $1.3 billion bailout with El Salvador, in late 2023 described the country's fiscal situation as "fragile."

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)