EL SALVADOR · ELECTIONS
Salvadorans living abroad will elect six of the 60 members of El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly on Sunday, 28 February 2027, under an electoral reform passed in May. The six seats come out of two home departments, San Salvador and La Libertad.
Key Facts
- What A new overseas district holds 6 of the Assembly’s 60 seats; the total stays at 60.
- Who loses San Salvador drops from 16 seats to 11, and La Libertad from 7 to 6.
- When The vote is Sunday, 28 February 2027, a general election for president and deputies.
- Where The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) plans 92 overseas voting centres in 29 countries, 53 of them in the US.
- Disputed An opposition deputy says nobody explained how the number six was calculated.
- Prediction markets Polymarket, a crypto-based betting market, gives Nuevas Ideas, the party of President Nayib Bukele, 96% to win the legislative vote (9 November, 1:05 a.m. ET).
How the Seats Move
The Legislative Assembly, El Salvador’s one-chamber parliament, voted on Thursday, 14 May, to change the Electoral Code, the law that sets how elections run, and press counts put the vote in favour at 57. The Assembly keeps 60 seats, so the six overseas seats must come from home departments.
San Salvador, the capital’s department, falls from 16 seats to 11. La Libertad, which lies west of the capital, falls from seven seats to six.
Who Can Vote Abroad
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), the body that runs elections and appears in this story as the electoral court, said about 960,000 Salvadorans had an overseas address on its rolls at the end of April. Salvadorans abroad need their overseas address on their national ID card, the DUI, to be assigned a voting centre.
The TSE plans 92 voting centres in 29 countries, 53 of them in the United States. Online voting for Salvadorans abroad opens on 30 January 2027, about a month before election day.
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Why the Number Six Is Disputed
Marcela Villatoro, a deputy for ARENA, a conservative opposition party, said no one could explain where the number six came from. Calculations cited by Villatoro and by Acción Ciudadana, a civil-society group, would give the overseas district eight seats on a population basis.
What It Means for You
Most of the planned overseas centres are in the United States, so Salvadoran-Americans are the main audience for these seats. Anyone with Salvadoran citizenship in the US should check that the DUI carries their US address before the cut-off.
Press reports put the cut-off for updating an overseas address at 29 November 2026, so confirm the exact day with the TSE. For the wider calendar, see our report on the electoral court’s call for the 2027 vote and our El Salvador coverage.
What Is Not Known
The Assembly has not published the formula behind the six overseas seats. It is also unclear how overseas ballots for the six deputies will be cast, how many candidates will run in the new district and how turnout abroad will compare with the vote at home.
What Prediction Markets Say
Polymarket, a crypto-based prediction market, gives Nuevas Ideas a 96% chance of winning the legislative election, but only about US$10,200 has been traded (9 November, 1:05 a.m. ET). A price on so little trading is a weak signal.
Why we show this: prediction markets turn real-money bets into a live probability that moves within minutes of the news, which is why investors, campaigns and newsrooms in the United States now follow them closely. We show them next to polls and official results, never instead of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many seats do Salvadorans abroad get?
Six of the Legislative Assembly’s 60 seats go to a new overseas district. The total number of deputies stays at 60.
Which departments lose seats?
San Salvador falls from 16 seats to 11, and La Libertad from seven to six. Together they give up the six seats that go to the overseas district.
When do overseas Salvadorans vote?
Election day is Sunday, 28 February 2027. Online voting for Salvadorans abroad opens on 30 January 2027.
How do voters abroad register?
They must have their overseas address on their DUI national ID card. Press reports put the cut-off for updating it at 29 November 2026.
Sources: Legislative Assembly of El Salvador, Electoral Code reform vote of 14 May 2026; Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), tse.gob.sv, electoral calendar and overseas-voting plan; Polymarket, polymarket.com/event/el-salvador-legislative-election-winner (read 9 November 2026).
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated AI newsroom. Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief. How we use AI · Report an error