Nayib Bukele Secures Supermajority, El Salvador Pro-Bitcoin Ruler Continues Its Agenda

Nayib Bukele, is back [As President of El Salvador. (photo: x @cpac)

JAKARTA - El Salvador's pro-Bitcoin president, Nayib Bukele, managed to secure a seat supermajority in his country's parliament. The New Ideas party he led won 54 of the 60 seats, the election supervisory body reported on February 20. This victory ensures Bukele has political power to continue its agenda, including policies related to Bitcoin.

However, this victory was marked by controversy. Opposition groups accused election fraud and asked for a cancellation of the results. They found 69 "quarks" in the electoral process.

Bukele, who has served since June 2019, is known as one of the world's vocal leaders to support cryptocurrencies. In September 2021, under his leadership, El Salvador became the first country in the world to make Bitcoin a legal tender.

However, Bukele's government is also colored by criticism of human rights violations. The United Nations report in March 2023 said there had been "mass detention" since 2022, in which many people died in detention or were subjected to ill treatment.

Bukele plans to continue his term of office after winning the re-election in February 2023. The Supreme Court of El Salvador previously changed the rules, allowing the president to serve two consecutive terms.

Interestingly, Bukele is scheduled to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington DC on February 22. The event will be attended by far-right figures, including former US President Donald Trump.