In 2009, FMLN had over 900,000 votes in the legislative elections and ARENA 850,000. These FMLN elections dropped to 175,000 and ARENA to 295,000.
The February 28 legislative elections reshaped the political map of El Salvador. The New Idea Party, which ran in this election for the first time, is the most voted of the 1994 legislative elections. While the traditional ARENA and FMLN parties have fallen by up to 79% in votes compared to the last election.
On February 28, Nuevas Ideas garnered more than 1.6 million votes, according to preliminary data released by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). The votes obtained were almost double the average obtained by ARENA and FMLN in the previous elections. But did the votes lost by ARENA and FMLN lead to new ideas? How was the electoral participation in the last legislative elections?
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FMLN began running in the 1994 election. It began with a similar volume of votes with rival ARENA: 350,000. As the election progressed, it reached 943,000 votes in 2009; year in which he not only won the majority of votes in the legislatures, but also won the presidency. But in 2012 it began to lose votes; in those legislative elections he lost just over 100,000. Already in 2018 it lost half of this flow and now it has dropped to 175,000.
“FMLN has been in decline. In the 2019 presidential election it was a total disaster. This was already a trend he brought. The hard vote of the FMLN was withdrawn before the hard vote of the ARENA; the rest of the votes were volatile, ”says Eduardo Escobar of Citizen Action.
A different picture with its rival ARENA, which in 2018 counted just over 800,000 votes. A number that remained in the presidential elections in 2019. The Bukele phenomenon did not reach ARENA much that year, but in this 2021 the reality was different.
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In the 2018 legislative elections, ARENA obtained 886,000 votes. The preliminary results of these last elections give him 295,000; a 67% reduction in the flow of votes. “Traditional parties have not made efforts to change old practices, we have not seen those structural and drinkable changes. (…) Both sides have fallen and are in their greatest decline, especially the FMLN. This time, the population took effect by abstaining from voting or transferring their votes to New Ideas “, says Eduardo Rosales from the National Foundation for Development (FUNDE).
The 1994 legislative and municipal elections had an average turnout of 44%. These legislative elections had a turnout of 51%, the highest since then.