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San Salvador – The Congress of El Salvador approved on Tuesday night a law that reduces from 262 to 44 the number of municipalities in the country in its 14 departments, as of May 2024.
First modification:
The reduction was made under the Special Municipal Restructuring Law, recently proposed by the Government of President Nayib Bukele and approved after almost six hours of discussion in plenary session with the votes of 67 deputies allied to the ruler.
“The territory of El Salvador for its administration will continue to be divided into the current 14 departments with 44 municipalities,” while the old 262 will be called “municipal districts,” said Article 1 of the new law approved by legislators.
Based on the new regulations, it was established that the religious and cultural traditions currently held by the 262 municipalities of the country will be “preserved” and “respected”.
According to the president of the Congress, Ernesto Castro, the reduction in the number of municipalities “will allow savings of 250 million dollars a year” in the country’s coffers, by reducing the disbursements in payment of various fixed expenses that the current municipalities have.
The new law clarifies that there will be no layoffs in the current mayors’ offices and the “only” positions to be abolished in May of next year will be members of municipal councils who will no longer be there and other positions considered “trustworthy.”
Resource Efficiency or Territorial Control?
Deputy Christian Guevara, head of the bench of Bukele’s allied party, Nuevas Ideas, described the decision to reduce the number of municipalities in the country as “historic”, considering that “more funds could be allocated to meet the needs of the population”.
For his part, the deputy of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), Jaime Guevara, pointed out that the reduction of municipalities is “a government tactic to maintain territorial control.”
On June 7, Congress approved, at the initiative of the Bukele Government, to reduce the seats in the Legislative Body from 84 to 60.
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has defined that the election of president and deputies to Congress be held on February 4, while the election of municipal councils of the 44 municipalities that the country will have and deputies to the Central American Parliament will be held on February 3. March 2024.
