Bukele calls for a reduction in mayoralties and deputies in his fourth-year speech in government

SAN SALVADOR – In the speech of fourth anniversary of government, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, announced his request to the Congress of that country to reduce the number of municipalities as well as the number of legislators before the February 2024 elections.

The proposal, according to the president, seeks to “reorganize the administrative political division of El Salvador,” which is currently made up of 262 municipalities and which, with the modification, would remain in 44 municipalities.

“This decision will allow us several things: reduce the budgetary burden that maintaining 262 mayors implies, with their councilors, trustees, secretary, advisers, treasurers, legal managers, press officers,” said the president.

Likewise, he asked the Legislative Body to reduce the number of deputies from 84 to 60, as it worked, according to Bukele, before the Peace Accords that ended the civil war in 1992.

If the reforms are approved before the elections, as requested by the president, they would have a direct impact on the elections in which Bukele seeks to be re-elected as president despite the fact that the Salvadoran Constitution prohibits it.

new jail

Just as his government declared “war on the gangs,” Bukele added, it will do the same with corruption, he said.

The president announced that his government will build a new jail “for corrupt people” without specifying details of the project. This is for the purpose of combating corruption.

A few months ago, El Salvador inaugurated the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT), a mega-prison with a capacity for 40,000 gang members.

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