The Organization of American States recognized Bukele's victory, but stressed that the elections “were held under unprecedented circumstances for El Salvador.”

(Washington, United States) In last Sunday's elections in El Salvador.”He added, “The huge difference between the winning candidate and his opponents leaves no room for doubt about the election results.”Although it was the election that marked her 'Unprecedented circumstances' For the state that included a certain “Unequal competition” This was stated by the Election Observation Mission of the Organization of American States in its initial report issued on Tuesday.

“The elections were held under unprecedented circumstances for El Salvador. One of the main reasons is that these are the first elections held under the emergency regime since the signing of the peace agreements in 1992. The second reason is that for the first time since the entry into force of the 1983 National Constitution, An acting president is appointed. He is vying for an immediate second presidential term,” said the report of the mission led by former Vice President of Panama Isabel de Saint-Malo.

Regarding the state of emergency, the Ministry of Environment highlighted that the country’s constitution allows the application of these measures, which suspend basic guarantees, for a period of 30 days, extendable if the reasons that led to this continue. Remember, there have already been so many extensions that the exception regime has been in place for 680 days.

The OAS mission highlights that many actors “have expressed their views.” “Concerned about repeated extension of emergency regime” Because it is understood that it “distorts its temporary nature.”

EOM is also reviewing The entire process that led to the President being allowed to register his candidacy recalls how the Constitutional Chamber was appointed by the Bukele government after the dismissal of the sitting judges in a controversial decision.

The mission states that this measure was rejected by the Secretariat of the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights “because they considered that “The constitutional rules governing American procedures and standards for impeachment of justice personnel have been violated.”.

The OAS mission also questioned the government's amendment to the penal code to add a criminal offense linked to election fraud, with penalties ranging from 10 to 15 years, for “those persons who make it difficult to register candidates who meet the requirements stipulated in the laws.” This amendment was interpreted as additional pressure on the Supreme Electoral Court to enable Bukele's registration.

“Mission Control/OAS warns that this rule, with regard to candidate registration, It violates US and global standards on the independence of judicial and electoral bodies. According to the principles recognized by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACTHR), the judiciary will have “the exclusive power to decide whether the matter before it falls within the jurisdiction conferred on it by law” and that “no action shall be taken that is ‘unjustified or unjustified’ interference.” in the judicial process.”

“The mission considers it so The situation described above violates the constitutional character of the supreme electoral body of the Supreme Electoral Court He added: “Because it is far from being the last word on electoral matters, its basic electoral decisions, such as registering candidacies, are subject to the Constitutional Chamber and the provisions of the criminal laws that limit its freedom to make decisions.” . the report.

The election observation mission also questioned some decisions related to financing the election campaign. In El Salvador, political parties are usually funded by the state through a mechanism known as “debt advance requests.”

According to the OAS mission, the process in these elections was very complex, more than what the law stipulates.

“Mission Control/OAS has confirmed this The combination of these factors has created conditions of unequal electoral competition. Likewise, it noted that there is no publicity about the value of voting and the efforts made by political organizations and state authorities in advance payment applications, as stated in the text of the Ministry of Education report.

The De Saint-Malo-led Ministry of Education report states that the official preliminary results “show a broad advantage for presidential candidate Nayib Bukele over his opponents” and that his New Ideas political party “will obtain an overwhelming majority in the Legislative Assembly.”

This, according to the Ministry of Education, “would provide the President of the Republic with powers of delegation that require responsible and deeply democratic exercise.” For the Organization of American States, this “will be crucial in ensuring the future of democracy in El Salvador.”

The report notes that the Inter-American Democratic Charter and the rulings of the Inter-American Court have demonstrated the need to respect the separation of powers.

“The Mission reiterates its findings contained in this report regarding actions that could have generated a climate of self-censorship for the exercise of rights and freedoms within the electoral process. However, it noted that political and social actors were generally able to participate in all stages of the process Electoral. Despite this, he noted that it is necessary to work to make the elections in El Salvador more fair and equitable.

The results transmission system failed during elections in El Salvador This means that on election night, citizens should be informed through exit surveys and through information collected by parties, rather than by electoral authorities.

In this sense, the OAS warns of weaknesses and bad practices during the different stages of the electoral process which, in the opinion of the election observation mission, affected key aspects such as the integrity of the competition, the transparency of the elections and the trust of some actors.

The Ministry of Education says: “The electoral authority’s submission of results in a timely and transparent manner is a fundamental obligation of the authorities, because these results are the only official and binding ones.”

The mission discovered deficiencies in areas such as electoral organization, overseas voting, and electoral technology used to transmit results from polling stations. In this sense, it refers to the shortcomings of the technological system implemented by the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which led to significant delays during the interim audit, the prolongation of gaps in official information and the adoption of unusual unregulated measures such as manual preparation of minutes in the face. Of widespread failures in the TSE system.