SAN SALVADOR, Feb 8, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A final count of ballots cast in El
Salvador’s presidential election confirmed the victory of outsider Nayib
Bukele, the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribual announced Thursday.
Bukele, of the conservative Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA), took
53.1 percent of the vote — enough to win the Sunday’s election in the first
round, TSE president Julio Olivo told a press conference.
After Bukele, the 37-year-old former mayor of San Salvador, was right-wing
Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) candidate and supermarket tycoon
Carlos Celleja with 31.72 percent of votes.
The governing left-wing Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation
(FMLN), which put forward former foreign minister Hugo Martinez, took 14.41
percent. Minority party Vamos’s Josue Alvarado took just 0.77 percent.
Olivo added turnout was 51.88 percent, with over 5.2 million Salvadorans
eligible to vote.
“We have demonstrated total transparency in this electoral process,” he
said.