Bukele’s Party Files 44 Mayoral Candidates

Nuevas Ideas, the party of President Nayib Bukele, says it finished registering candidates for all 44 of El Salvador’s mayoral races on Thursday 12 November 2026, ahead of the 28 February 2027 vote. Diario El Salvador, a Salvadoran daily, reported on Friday that the party completed all 44 filings the day before.

The party now governs 28 of the 44 municipalities, Diario El Salvador reported, so the mayoral slate shows how much of that local base it is defending. Voters will choose a president, 60 lawmakers and 44 mayors on the same day, according to the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE), the national election authority.

How the Filing Worked

Parties file municipal slates with the departmental electoral boards, one for each of the country’s 14 departments. On X, the social media platform, Nuevas Ideas wrote that it had “inscrito oficialmente” (“officially registered”) its candidates for the three municipalities of La Paz department, according to Diario El Salvador.

The TSE set 9 to 19 November 2026 as the window for municipal candidacies, so filing stays open until Thursday 19 November.

Who Is Running

In San Salvador department, which has five municipalities, Diario El Salvador said Mario Durán, a Nuevas Ideas mayor, is seeking re-election in San Salvador Centro. The party holds four of the five, and the party GANA runs San Salvador Norte, where the Nuevas Ideas candidate is Edgardo Mulato.

In Santa Ana department, the party filed four slates, one for each municipality. Gustavo Acevedo, the current mayor, is seeking a third term in Santa Ana Centro, and Albán Castro, a tourism businessman, is a first-time candidate in Santa Ana Este.

What Prediction Markets Say

On Polymarket, a prediction market where users stake real money, traders price Nuevas Ideas at 96.4% to win the legislative election as of 6:07 am US Eastern time on 13 November 2026. Only US$10,670 has been traded in total, and every other named party is priced at 3.1% or less. The market covers the legislative vote, not the mayoral races, so it says little about local results.

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.

What It Means for Readers Abroad

The TSE says Salvadorans abroad who are enabled for remote voting can vote online from 30 January to 28 February 2027. More than 6.5 million people are eligible overall, based on a 15 September 2026 count.

The filings are the formal registration step of the local race. For the wider race, see our report on how Bukele and his rivals can register, and our El Salvador news hub.

What Is Not Known

We have not seen the TSE’s own list of filed municipal candidacies, so the count of 44 rests on one newspaper report and the party’s own post about La Paz. Other parties’ slates were not part of that report.

Frequently Asked Questions

When are El Salvador’s mayoral elections?

On Sunday 28 February 2027, together with the presidential and legislative votes, the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE) says. Voters will elect 44 mayors.

How many municipalities does Nuevas Ideas govern?

Diario El Salvador reports 28 of 44. The same report says GANA runs six.

Can Salvadorans in the US vote?

Yes, if they are enabled for remote voting. The TSE says online voting from abroad runs from 30 January to 28 February 2027.

Sources: Tribunal Supremo Electoral, convocation notice; Nuevas Ideas on X, as quoted by Diario El Salvador; Diario El Salvador, 13 November 2026; Polymarket, read 13 November 2026.