El Salvador election results delayed, despite president’s declaration of victory

El Salvador’s Supreme Electoral Court on Monday said it had asked polling stations across the country to manually record the results of Sunday’s presidential election after electronic transmission of results stopped updating overnight at around 31%.

El Salvador’s Supreme Electoral Court on Monday said it had asked polling stations across the country to manually record the results of Sunday’s presidential election after electronic transmission of results stopped updating overnight at around 31%. The court’s decision could delay the announcement of what is expected to be a landslide victory for Nayib Bukele, who declared himself the winner in a statement on X on Sunday night. Bukele had secured nearly 1.3 million votes – well ahead of the second-place candidate – according to the latest electronic count before it stalled. The court said it took its decision based on the country’s electoral code and after actions that “hindered” the transmission of primary results and “other factors beyond the control of the (court),” without elaborating further. Polling stations will now have to manually report voting records, with both election officials and party representatives taking “photographic or scanned evidence” of the records before sending them to the court. Bukele, 42, was widely expected to win reelection. He faced little in the way of organized opposition and enjoys one of the highest favorability ratings in the region, regularly polling above 70% in independent surveys. His supporters trumpet a crackdown on criminal gangs in the country that resulted in a dramatic fall in the murder rate, once the highest in the world.