El Salvador votes with gang-busting Bukele miles ahead

El Salvador goes to the polls on February 4 with victory for gang-busting President Nayib Bukele in the bag and the only question of how many seats his party will claim in a new-look parliament.

El Salvador goes to the polls on February 4 with victory for gang-busting President Nayib Bukele in the bag and the only question of how many seats his party will claim in a new-look parliament.

Mr. Bukele, 42, enjoys approval ratings hovering around 90% and polls as Latin America's most popular leader, credited with slashing the country's homicide rate and restoring peace to a violence-weary nation.

His government has rounded up more than 75,000 gangsters - real and suspected - since a state of emergency came into effect in March 2022.

Thousands are held in a brand-new prison - plugged as the largest in the Americas - which the president had built in a matter of months.

And last year, the country that was once one of the most dangerous in the world saw the murder rate plummet to its lowest level in three decades - far below the world average.

As a result, Mr. Bukele is all but assured victory in the first voting round despite concerns about rights violations, creeping authoritarianism and grumblings about the economy.

"He has been effective. He cleaned up all those places (of gangs) where nobody thought it could be done," retired architect Claudia Del Velasco, 72, told AFP in the capital San Salvador, "excited" about casting her vote.