New Ideas and Allies Win 43 of 44 Municipal Governments

Today, according to our news sources here, I am reporting the results from the Elections held yesterday, 3 March 2024, in El Salvador.

Yesterday, El Salvador held its municipal government elections, marking an essential moment in the country’s political landscape. These elections saw mayors and council members elected to lead and represent their local communities, with voters turning out in large numbers to make their voices heard.

The municipal government plays a crucial role in El Salvador, as it is responsible for providing essential services and making important decisions that directly impact the lives of residents. As such, these elections are a crucial opportunity for voters to shape the future of their communities and hold their local leaders accountable.

Leading up to the elections, candidates campaigned vigorously, engaging with voters and outlining their platforms on public safety, economic development, and social programs. These campaigns sought to address the pressing needs of communities and offer solutions to the challenges facing El Salvador.

The New Ideas party led the victory on a national scale in the municipal elections held yesterday, obtaining the majority of mayoralties, according to data from the preliminary count of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), which also gave an account of the municipal governments that will be led under the banners of the parties allied to the government of President Nayib Bukele. About these results, the president wrote in X: “All the opposition together barely managed to add a mayor’s office. The parties that support our project: 43 out of 44.”

In addition, for the first time since the existence of the FMLN as a political party, it obtained zero deputies and mayoralties. On the other hand, ARENA only won one mayor’s office.

Monday, 26 February, was Elizabeth’s Birthday, so I booked us an overnight at a beach resort called “Reef on The Water“.

We arrived at Reef On The Water at 2:30 pm, and check-in was at 3 pm. After we upgraded, we got in our room; it was an ocean view. We had a balcony where we could sit, relax, and eat if we chose not to go to the dining area.
After settling in, we went to walk around. We went down to the beach, which was nice, but the tide was in, so we did not get in the water. We returned to the bar/dining area. Here, we had a drink and ordered our dinner. Elizabeth had the fish, and I had a bacon hamburger. The meal was delicious.
In the evening, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the ocean. We enjoyed a few drinks in the bar area before retiring to our room—a delightful day.
Elizabeth and I woke up early on Tuesday morning. We watched the sunrise over the ocean; it was a beautiful site. We walked around the area; the view of the ocean was breathtaking. At around 8 am, we had a Salvadorian breakfast, eggs, beans, platoons, and bread included with our stay.
After breakfast, Elizabeth enjoyed a swim in the ocean.
We checked out at noon and took the long way around the coastline. We stopped for lunch at the Ban Ban restaurant in Sonsonate. Elizabeth had the house salad, and I had the Philly steak and cheese. It was a delightful lunch. Here, we also brought Elizabeth’s Birthday cake. It was a charming little getaway, and Elizabeth enjoyed her birthday.

Our vision at   ourlifeinelsalvador.com is to be the go-to travel blog for exploring the rich culture, stunning landscapes, beaches, and hidden gems of El Salvador. Elizabeth and I will happily answer any questions or concerns you may have. If you decide to visit El Salvador, We can create or help you make an itinerary to match your interests so that you can enjoy your visit to the fullest.

We aim to inspire and provide unparalleled assistance and information to our adventure-seeking community, ensuring an unforgettable experience in this captivating country. Together, we will make El Salvador accessible and ignite a global passion for its beauty and authenticity.

Please tell us your interests and what you want to see in our post. 

Elizabeth and I do not charge for our services; we are happy to help you if possible. Please comment below, or you can email us at ourlifeinelsalvador@gmail.com

Hugh Talley

El Salvador’s people have spoken and elected President Nayib Bukele for another five-year term. According to Diario El Salvador news, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal says President Bukele has won over 70% of the vote; some news outlets say he won by over 80%. This is a historic win for President Bukele. Leaders worldwide have called to congratulate him and wish him continued success.

Elizabeth and I had decided in 2005 that we would relocate to El Salvador when we retired. I had planned to retire when I was 65, but things changed. We ended up retiring in November 2011; I would turn 62 in December. We had been planning on building a home upon moving here. We had a lot of ideas and thoughts about how we wanted our home to be. Elizabeth had an excellent plot of land from her Father, so we had the land to build.
We arrived in November, near the end of the rainy season. We rented a home in the village near our land. We had made arrangements with a local builder named Stephen, whom we had chosen after interviewing many others. We broke land and started the construction in the first part of December 2011.
The following eight months would be full of mixed emotions for Elizabeth and me. Some days, it would seem slow; some days, it seemed to move fast. We were on the site almost every day; we had laid out our plans, but every week. We would have to modify and make changes for one reason or another.
We brought most of our materials locally. We brought much of our furnishings with us from the States. Regarding the ceramics, paint, roofing, and hardware, we went to Sonsonate and San Salvador for these. Many day-to-day decisions had to be made, which kept our emotions on a roller coaster. My son Matt was coming for a visit in July, and we wanted to be in our home for his visit.
I am happy to say everything worked out. Our ideas for our home come from our minds and from going through many books on home building. One book that was a great help is a book we brought at Lowes. I have added a picture of it below. We used many ideas from the many different homes in it and made many modifications to get what we wanted. This is truly the home that we designed.
We have lived here for over 12 years and love our home in El Salvador. We have a garden where we can grow most things year-round because of the warm climate here. Elizabeth raises free-range chickens; she enjoys that. We walk our property at least every other morning for exercise, 3.5-4 miles every other day. We have a perfect life here.

We have added a slide show of building our home.
Please like, subscribe, and comment, and let us know your thoughts and questions. We would love to hear from you.

The General elections will be held on 4 February 2024 to elect the President, vice president, and the 60 deputies of the Legislative Assembly. 

Nayib Bukele is running for reelection. President Bukele’s accomplishments as President include

 Decreasing the murder rate to historic lows.

In September 2022, President Bukele launched. 

‘My New School’ a project that comprehensively changed the national education system, including remodeling over 5000 schools and constructing new schools. Incorporating components focused on student health, technology in the classroom, teacher training, early childhood care, and curriculum renewal.

In June of 2023, President Bukele started the construction project to rebuild the Rosales Hospital in San Salvador.

In February 2022, President Bukele inaugurated the second economic boost to promote tourism and the development of El Salvador. This included the expansion of the passenger terminal at El Salvador International Airport.

In my opinion, President Bukele has done an excellent job. I have lived here for the past 12 years and have never seen the country safer or in better shape than it is now.

The following is from a San Salvador newspaper on the election; it explains the process. From all indications, President Bukele will be reelected for another five-year term.

Voting intention for Nayib Bukele is 70.9%, according to UFG poll

The poll also reflects a voting intention of 54.7% for Nuevas Ideas in the municipal council elections. Likewise, for the legislative elections, the poll projects that Nuevas Ideas would win 57 of the 60 deputies.

The Center for Citizen Studies (CEC), of the Francisco Gavidia University (UFG), published a survey on Monday, January 15, which reflects voting intentions for the next presidential, congressional and mayoral elections to be held in El Salvador.

The poll shows a voting intention for the presidential elections in which the candidate of Nuevas Ideas, Nayib Bukele, has a wide lead over his other opponents. According to the study, Nayib Bukele currently enjoys 70.9% of voting intentions.

The presidential candidate who follows Bukele in voting intentions, according to the UFG poll, is Manuel Flores of the FMLN, who has just 2.9% voting intentions. Behind him is Joel Sanchez from Arena, who has 2.7%.

Other presidential candidates with minimal percentages of voting intentions are Luis Parada of Nuestro Tiempo, with 1.1%, and Marina Murillo of FPS, and José Javier Renderos of Fuerza Solidaria, with only 0.6% each.

For the legislative elections, the UFG poll projects an almost absolute majority of deputies for Nuevas Ideas in the Legislative Assembly. According to the study, Nuevas Ideas would be winning 57 of the 60 deputies in contention.

Meanwhile, the remaining three seats would be divided between the Arena party, with two, and the PDC, with one, according to the poll.

Finally, the UFG poll reflects a majority of voting intentions for Nuevas Ideas in the municipal council elections. For these elections, the study shows a voting intention of 54.7% for New Ideas.

Meanwhile, for municipal councils, Arena has 5.8% of voting intentions; GANA, 3.3%; PDC, 3%; FMLN, 2.8%; PCN, 1.7% and Vamos, 1%. While other parties that do not achieve 1% of voting intentions are Nuestro Tiempo, with 0.9%; Fuerza Solidaria, with 0.7%; Democratic Change, 0.6%; and SPF, 0.1%.

The survey only published, specifically, the study of voting intentions for the new municipality of La Libertad Este, made up of Antiguo Cuscatlán, Nuevo Cuscatlán, Huizúcar, Zaragoza and San José Villanueva. For this municipality, the New Ideas party and its candidate Michelle Sol have 45% of voting intentions against the Arena party, which with its candidate and current mayor, Milagro Navas, have 26.8%.

The study, the CEC said, was conducted from Jan. 3 to Jan. 8 and included interviews and a mock vote.

A strong quake in southern Guatemala jolts residents, felt in El Salvador.

A little before 12 am last night, we were awoken by a robust trimmer from an earthquake that we now know was in Guatemala. We often feel trimmers from quakes here, but this was stronger than usual. I researched it this morning and found this Reuters report. I thought It would interest our followers.

Reuters

January 27, 20243:20 AM CSTUpdated 7 hours ago

GUATEMALA CITY/SAN SALVADOR, January 27 (Reuters) – A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck the southern Pacific coast of Guatemala late on Friday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), causing some to flee their homes and with early reports of damage to buildings.

The quake was also felt in neighboring El Salvador.

There were no immediate reports of injuries, just past midnight, while many slept.

Officials in El Salvador described the quake as “strong” and said they were monitoring developments.

The earthquake’s epicenter was near the Guatemalan town of Taxisco, about 60 miles (100 km) south of Guatemala City’s capital, where alarms sounded and some frightened residents evacuated their homes.

USGS said the quake struck at a depth of 108 km (67 miles).

Parts of the facade of a church in the town of San Pablo Jocopilas, northwest of the quake’s epicenter, fell down, said Guatemala’s emergency services agency CONRED.

Reporting by Sofia Menchu in Guatemala City and Nelson Renteria in San Salvador.

Elizabeth and I would love to hear from you. Please follow and comment to let us know your interest.

I am writing this post to inform my readers that I am using the new WordPress, which differs greatly from the version I used a few years ago. I am sorry for the inconvenience with the learning curve. I hope to be on top of this soon. I think I am getting the hang of it.

Good Morning World,
I was up at 5 am this morning. I had some work to do before I started this blog post. I took my dog out, and we watched a beautiful sunrise. It was around 68 degrees, and some of our flowers were in bloom. I thanked our Creator and the Universe for another day of life and our many Blessings.
I am formulating ideas for the future blog posts that I want to write and where to start. My next post will go back to 2011, when we started building our home here. In our future post, I want to write about our travels, the history, adventures, current events, and things in and about El Salvador and other Central American countries that you, our followers, will enjoy and be interested in. We are planning some trips to other countries in Central America later this year. We will keep you updated on this.

El Salvador is a beautiful and very safe country at this time. I never had any problems here, but there were problems in some areas. However, in the last four years, most of that has changed. When we first visited El Salvador in 2004, almost all businesses would close by 8-9 pm. Now, many Pharmacies, gas stations, and restaurants are open 24 hours a day in larger towns and cities.

El Salvador has the best Airport in Central America; it is being remodeled and is very friendly. When flying from the United States East Coast, we strongly recommend flying with Avianca Airlines; you can usually get a straight flight, and it is only 4 hours from Washington, DC, to San Salvador. If you take a very early or a late flight, it usually costs much less.

I will close this post by saying that you should definitely put El Salvador on your places to visit list. Please remember that if you want to visit El Salvador and need information about what to see, where to visit, where to stay, and an itinerary of suggested things to do, Elizabeth and I can help you with all your needs.

We would be grateful if you subscribe, comment, and follow us on our journey. Reminder: you can read this in Spanish by clicking on the icon below on the right.