Salvadoran public continues to tell pollsters they approve of Bukele

Two opinion polls released in June show president Nayib Bukele continuing to receive high approval ratings from large swaths of the Salvadoran public.  A poll released by La Prensa Grafica, one of the country's major newspapers, reported that 85.2% of the public approve of Bukele's performance in office after six years in the presidency.  A second poll released by the Institute of Public Opinion at the UCA reported that respondents gave  him an average grade of 8.15 on a 0-10 scale for his presidency.

Bukele's ratings have ranged between 8.7 and 8.15 in the last 5 years of polls by the UCA.

These  latest polls are consistent, and not surprising, in finding that respondents praise the improved public security situation as Bukele's greatest achievement, and point to economic issues as his biggest challenge.

The Legislative Assembly and local municipal governments, however, had approval ratings quite a bit below the ratings of Bukele, despite being controlled almost entirely by his political party.

One result in the IUDOP poll was striking.   58% of respondents said that it was somewhat or very likely that persons would suffer adverse consequences if they expressed criticisms of the government and the president in social or other media.  48.3% said such a person would be detained or jailed.

60% of respondents believe the State of Exception should continue to be in force, while 38% thought it was time to look for other measures.