El Salvador to go to the polls for Presidential Election

By James Blears

Back in 2015, El Salvador's homicide rate was 105 in 100,000 people. 

It remained constantly high, but that started to change after 2019, when Nayib Bukele was elected President, ageD 37.

He was the youngest leader in Latin America, and proved himself to be the toughest, with his "Mano Duro," or "Firm Hand," law and order policy.

Today, the homicide rate is 7.8 per 100,000 people. How has he achieved it? By declaring an ongoing State of Emergency in 2022, 76,000 people have been arrested since then. That's more than one percent of the entire population. 

A year earlier, his New Ideas Party swept the legislative elections, and the Constitutional Court was purged with pro, his Party Judges, being installed.

Mass trials with as many as 900 accused can now be held. 

Civil liberties have been suspended and there have been thousands of arrests. A huge prison has been built which can hold forty thousand inmates.

The Supreme Court of Justice ruled Bukele could run for the top job again, overturning a statute restricting a Presidential term to one only. 

For this Presidential Election, there are five other candidates, but opinion polls put Niyib Bukele way in the lead. 

Victory would give him a mandate for five more years as president.

Supporters say he's crushing organized crime. Opponents say he's eroding democracy at the same time.