Political parties in El Salvador to catch the external vote

As of the beginning of February this year, the National Registry of Natural Persons (RNPN) indicated that there were 792,404 overseas voters registered to be able to vote in 2024, although some estimates put it as high as one million.

In just one month, at the beginning of this year, 175,962 Salvadorans residing abroad were registered to vote in the upcoming elections, which is forcing the political parties to fight and convince this sector to get their support.

The registry, as set by the Supreme Court of Elections, was closed on August 7 of this year, thus the prediction of the number of Salvadorans living outside the country, who will exercise the right to vote to elect the president, vice president and deputies. And mayors, and that could be up to a million or more.

This important vote is already viewed with suspicion by some who suggest it could be the cause of a massive scam due to alleged manipulation of the mechanisms used, both in person and online.

Undoubtedly, on Election Day, all eyes will be on American cities such as Silver Spring, Maryland. in Virginia on Long Island, New York; Los Angeles, Houston and Dallas, as well as in Europe, where there are large concentrations of voters, without giving up Canada, where at least 60 thousand people can vote.

After these votes, each of the ruling party, i.e. Nuevas Ideas and allies, as well as the opposition sectors of the National Republican Alliance (ARENA), FMLN, Nestros Tempos, Vamos, among other umbrella politics will present candidates for the conflict that will be Settled on Feb 4, 2024.

Recently, Nuestro Tiempo and Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (Arena), in an approach to the issue of El Mundo newspaper, have expressed that they have already identified potential candidates outside the country.

Salvadorans abroad will be able to vote for deputies in the Legislative Assembly, the President and other elective positions, in addition to the fact that they can be elected as candidates in the internal elections of the parties that will end on July 5 of this year. .

It is an achievement that this large number of citizens is already recognized in the Special Law for Voting Abroad, which obliges political parties to allow residents abroad to also register as former candidates to participate in internal elections.

In this direction and recognizing the importance of external suffrage, the President of the National Executive Council of the Arena (Quena), Carlos García Saade, told Diario El Mundo that he even considers that his party’s presidential candidate must be a Salvadoran abroad. .

The top leader of the Nistro Tempo Party, Andy Feller, also confirmed that his group’s laws “already allow participation by people who live abroad.”

The FMLN supports and will seek the support of overseas voters after recognizing in its law reforms, the importance of this ballot,

This weekend, important figures from the Nuevas Ideas party are in Houston, Texas, United States, including the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Ernesto Castro, in what is seen as a move to seek support for an outside vote, something they have already done in A recent visit to Los Angeles, California.

“I will accompany the President of the Legislative Assembly, Ernesto Castro, to a meeting with Salvadorans abroad,” deputy Susi Callejas said in a video on social networks.

Castro and other Nuevas Ideas representatives held a meeting with Salvadorans in the United States on February 26, which was described as a highly anticipated campaign by both critical and opposition voices.

Undoubtedly, the parties involved in the contest will make an effort to present themselves as alternatives to winning votes abroad, where, not necessarily as internal polls indicate, Nuevas Ideas and President Bukele have majority support.

poem / lb