Nayib Bukele is favored to win El Salvador's presidency when voters head to the polls on Sunday, as the country grapples with violence, corruption, poverty and an exodus of migrants seeking to reach the United States.
El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world, the three presidents preceding the current incumbent have all been charged with corruption, and it is battling to reduce illegal immigration to the US after President Donald Trump threatened to cut off aid.
The closest challenge to Bukele -- a 37-year-old former mayor of the capital who represents the conservative Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) party -- should come from 42-year-old supermarket magnate Carlos Calleja of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).
In a distant third is leftist candidate and former foreign minister Hugo Martinez of the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN).
Between them, ARENA and FMLN have dominated Salvadoran politics for the last 30 years.
"We're not going to let the same people as always govern us, we're going to make history," Bukele said at one of his last campaign rallies.
He has promised to increase investment in education, implement new programs to confront insecurity, and to fight corruption.
More than five million people are eligible to vote. If no individual receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a run-off between the top two candidates will take place on March 10.
Some 23,000 police officers and 15,000 soldiers will be on duty on election day.
- Insecurity and the economy -
Polls suggest that insecurity and a weak economy will be the two major challenges facing the new president.
El Salvador is beset by gang violence and registered 3,340 murders last year. Authorities say most of those were gang related.
Gangs are said to have 70,000 members, 17,000 of whom are behind bars.
The other main worry for Salvadorans is the dollarized economy. Although it grew by 2.6 percent in 2018, its biggest rise in five years, that is considered insufficient to cover the demand for new employment.
The election winner will have to juggle the need to raise taxes to cover an external debt of more than $9.5 billion while trying to maintain social programs in a country where the minimum wage of $300 a month is barely enough to buy food.
"The challenge for the new leader is to satisfy the demand for fairer salaries and avoid the social exclusion that forces many to flee the country," said Raul Moreno, an economics professor at the state university.
Just over 30 percent of El Salvador's 6.6 million inhabitants live below the poverty line.
During the last few months of 2018, more than 3,000 Salvadorans joined caravans marching towards the US, fleeing gangs and a lack of employment.
People "are leaving their country because there's no hope here," said Jose Maria Tojeira, director of the Human Rights Institute at the Central American University.
"Politicians are more interested in their own future than that of the majority. This is a country that expels its citizens."
Nayib Bukele is favored to win El Salvador’s presidency when voters head to the polls on Sunday, as the country grapples with violence, corruption, poverty and an exodus of migrants seeking to reach the United States.
El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world, the three presidents preceding the current incumbent have all been charged with corruption, and it is battling to reduce illegal immigration to the US after President Donald Trump threatened to cut off aid.
The closest challenge to Bukele — a 37-year-old former mayor of the capital who represents the conservative Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) party — should come from 42-year-old supermarket magnate Carlos Calleja of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).
In a distant third is leftist candidate and former foreign minister Hugo Martinez of the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN).
Between them, ARENA and FMLN have dominated Salvadoran politics for the last 30 years.
“We’re not going to let the same people as always govern us, we’re going to make history,” Bukele said at one of his last campaign rallies.
He has promised to increase investment in education, implement new programs to confront insecurity, and to fight corruption.
More than five million people are eligible to vote. If no individual receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a run-off between the top two candidates will take place on March 10.
Some 23,000 police officers and 15,000 soldiers will be on duty on election day.
– Insecurity and the economy –
Polls suggest that insecurity and a weak economy will be the two major challenges facing the new president.
El Salvador is beset by gang violence and registered 3,340 murders last year. Authorities say most of those were gang related.
Gangs are said to have 70,000 members, 17,000 of whom are behind bars.
The other main worry for Salvadorans is the dollarized economy. Although it grew by 2.6 percent in 2018, its biggest rise in five years, that is considered insufficient to cover the demand for new employment.
The election winner will have to juggle the need to raise taxes to cover an external debt of more than $9.5 billion while trying to maintain social programs in a country where the minimum wage of $300 a month is barely enough to buy food.
“The challenge for the new leader is to satisfy the demand for fairer salaries and avoid the social exclusion that forces many to flee the country,” said Raul Moreno, an economics professor at the state university.
Just over 30 percent of El Salvador’s 6.6 million inhabitants live below the poverty line.
During the last few months of 2018, more than 3,000 Salvadorans joined caravans marching towards the US, fleeing gangs and a lack of employment.
People “are leaving their country because there’s no hope here,” said Jose Maria Tojeira, director of the Human Rights Institute at the Central American University.
“Politicians are more interested in their own future than that of the majority. This is a country that expels its citizens.”
