The Supreme Electoral Court of El Salvador (TSE) announced on Friday the official outcome of the presidential election, confirming Nayib Bukele as the winner representing the ruling Nuevas Ideas (NI) party. After completing the final verification of ballots, the court reported a decisive level of electoral support for Bukele, with the official update showing a substantial lead that cements his position in the national political landscape for the current term.
During a press conference, TSE judge Dora Martínez detailed the distribution of votes across the political spectrum. Nuevas Ideas amassed a total of 2,700,725 votes, accounting for 82.66 percent of the valid ballots. The leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) trailed with 204,167 votes, equal to 6.25 percent. The Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) received 177,881 votes, or 5.44 percent. For the first time in this electoral cycle, the Nuestro Tiempo humanist center party captured 65,076 votes, which equaled 1.99 percent. Smaller groups—Fuerza Solidaria and Fraternidad Patriota Salvadoreña (FPS)—collected 23,473 votes (0.72 percent) and 19,293 votes (0.59 percent) respectively.
The judge also reported an electoral roll totaling 6,214,399 eligible voters for the 2024 presidential elections, with 3,268,466 casting ballots, yielding a participation rate of 52.60 percent. Additional figures included 15,064 abstention votes (0.46 percent) and 1,760 objection votes (0.05 percent).
Just before the final results were announced, Bukele underscored the clear margin separating him from his rivals compared with the 2019 election, when he secured the presidency in the first round with the largest share of votes of any candidate against all others combined. In the 2024 cycle, he pointed out a sweeping lead that encompassed a broad spectrum of voters, including those who had backed other parties in the past. The president published a message accompanied by a graphic highlighting the substantial difference in votes between his coalition and the remaining parties, expressing gratitude to the Salvadoran people.
Comparative data from this election illustrate a notable shift in support dynamics. Bukele garnered 1,434,856 votes, representing 53.10 percent in the presidential race, marking a stronger performance than his 2019 total and signaling increased backing amid a changing political climate. The traditional parties experienced a decline in vote flows; Arena, once a dominant force in the right-wing coalition in 2019, secured 857,084 votes as a faction within that broader bloc, while the FMLN registered 389,289 votes in this cycle, reflecting the evolving preferences of the electorate.
The formal declaration of the official results occurred the previous Sunday night, when Bukele proclaimed himself the winner with more than 85 percent of the vote count reported, even as the complete voter turnout and abstention rate awaited full consolidation. This sequence of events positioned Bukele as the first Salvadoran president to secure reelection under a constitutional framework that prohibits consecutive terms, a milestone achieved as the country transitioned from decades of military rule toward a sustained democracy. The electoral process, then, sits at the intersection of constitutional interpretation, political strategy, and evolving democratic norms, shaping the contemporary narrative around governance in El Salvador.