El Salvador’s Congress is accelerating approval of President Nayib Bukele’s proposed reforms that would shape national politics ahead of the 2024 general election.
During a speech to lawmakers in early June, Bukele unveiled a package of changes that included plans to fight corruption and build a prison to house criminals convicted of the crime, as well as a proposal to reduce the number of communities currently hosting 262, down to just 262 included 44 and another reducing the number of lawmakers from 84 to 60.
“The territorial reorganization was an open task,” said Vice-President Félix Ulloa in an interview broadcast on social networks on June 2. “We managed our territory in an anarchic way. “It’s not very logical that there are 262 churches in such a small country,” he added.
For policy analyst Eduardo Núñez, the reforms come as no surprise and come in response to efforts to maintain the government’s political majority in Congress and local governments.
“The main aim of reducing the number of MPs and changing the electoral formula is to reduce the impact of the proportional minority system and thereby reduce the possibility of small parties getting minority representation,” he told BNamericas.
“The President is creating conditions to maintain the current power structure that has allowed him to rule with a legislative majority to advance a political agenda,” he added.
Regarding reducing the number of municipalities, Núñez said it could undermine the political bases of the smaller parties that have support in certain areas.
“The territorial concentration of communities reduces or weakens these bastions,” he added.
However, the impact is not only political, but also economic and administrative in nature, because a significant reduction in the number of municipalities could also result in savings of 250 million US dollars per year, explained Núñez.
“It also poses institutional and administrative challenges. What does that mean administratively? What will happen to the debt, to the municipalities in their current legal capacity, to the mayor’s office staff, to services such as garbage collection, to the public works contracts signed by the municipalities?” he asked, adding that these problems are not yet cleared.
In addition, Núñez believes another reform could be on the horizon that would allow for further political reshuffling.
“My impression is that there could be another reform that fundamentally removes the restriction on party movement,” Núñez said.
“I do not rule out that there was reform to allow for the reorganization and to remove any doubt about the president’s re-election aspirations [Bukele]so that it could participate through another alliance and not be dependent on the parties.”