Legislative and municipal elections are scheduled to be held in El Salvador on 28 February 2027, three years after the 2024 legislative election. Salvadorans will elect all 60 members of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador and all members of the country's 44 municipal councils. The election will occur with concurrent presidential elections. , eleven political parties are eligible to participate in the election.

Political background

Nuevas Ideas, the political party of Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele, won the 2024 legislative election in a landslide victory, winning 54 of the Legislative Assembly's 60 seats. Nuevas Ideas and allied parties also won 43 of the country's 44 municipalities and 16 of El Salvador's 20 seats in the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN). The members of the 14th Legislative Assembly and the 44 municipal councils assumed office on 1 May 2024.

Electoral reforms

On 31 July 2025, the Legislative Assembly voted to reform the constitution of El Salvador. One of the reforms included El Salvador's withdrawal from PARLACEN, describing it as an "inefficient waste" (""). Due to this withdrawal, El Salvador will not elect members to PARLACEN in 2027. Another reform moved the date of the 2029 presidential election to 2027 and extended presidential terms to six years. This reform made it so future presidential and legislative elections will occur in concurrence with each other instead of being staggered.

On 29 April 2026, Bukele proposed a constitutional reform to give Salvadorans expatriates representation in the Legislative Assembly. As of that date, there were 944,684 Salvadorans abroad registered to vote. Since the approval of an expatriate voting law in 2022, votes from Salvadoran expatriates were counted to the legislative seats of the San Salvador Department. The reform was approved by the Legislative Assembly on 29 April and was ratified on 7 May. In total, 6 seats were allocated to the overseas constituency but the legislature's 60-seat composition was not affected as one seat was taken from La Libertad and five were taken from San Salvador. The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) stated that it would implement the reforms ahead of the 2027 election.

Manuel Flores, the secretary-general of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), stated that the party anticipated the overseas constituency reform and that it was ready to nominate candidates. Ronal Umaña, the founder of the Cambio Total political party, criticized the reform and accused the Legislative Assembly of taking seats away from Salvadorans. He also claimed that all seats would go to Nuevas Ideas. Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) deputy Marcela Villatoro criticized the removal of seats from La Libertad and San Salvador as those departments have the highest levels of migration, and deputy Francisco Lira described the reform as a concentration of power.

Electoral system

Electoral procedure

In February 2025, the TSE announced that it had scheduled the 2027 legislative and municipal elections to occur on 28 February 2027. Salvadorans outside of the country will be able to vote online from 30 January to 28 February. , there are 6,550,487 registered voters, of which, 5,451,501 reside in the country and 1,098,986 live abroad.

All legislative candidates must be Salvadoran citizens by birth and be at least 25 years old. Members of the Legislative Assembly will be elected via the D'Hondt method. On 2 December 2025, the Legislative Assembly approved a US$172.1 million budget for the 2027 election.

Political parties

Political parties must be registered with the TSE in order to participate in the 2027 legislative and municipal elections. , eleven political parties are eligible to participate in the election. New political parties have until 4 April to petition the TSE for registration and until 31 August to be fully registered.

Party Leader 2024 results Legislative Municipalities PDC Christian Democratic Party Reinaldo Carballo FMLN Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front Manuel Flores GANA Grand Alliance for National Unity Nelson Guardado V Let's Go Cesia Rivas PCN National Coalition Party Manuel Rodríguez ARENA Nationalist Republican Alliance Carlos García Saade NI New Ideas Xavier Zablah Bukele DS Salvadoran Democracy Ezequiel Mendoza Fermán PAIS Salvadoran Independent Party Roy García FPS Salvadoran Patriotic Fraternity Óscar Morales Lemus FS Solidary Force Rigoberto Soto

Candidates

Retiring deputies

Party Retiring deputy Department Serving since Nuevas Ideas Nancy Yanira Alfaro Márquez Cabañas 1 May 2024 Rodrigo Javier Ayala Claros San Salvador 1 May 2021 Raúl Neftalí Castillo Rosales Usulután Walter David Coto Ayala La Paz Dania Abigaíl González Rauda San Salvador 1 May 2024 Ana Marisela Canales de Guardado Usulután 1 May 2021 Ana Magdalena Figueroa Figueroa San Salvador Johana Paola Hernández Batres Usulután 1 May 2024 Saúl Enrique Mancía Chalatenango 1 May 2021 Edgardo Antonio Meléndez Mulato San Salvador Herbert Azael Rodas Díaz La Unión

Election campaign

Political parties have until 7 April 2026 to convoke their legislative and municipal primary elections and until 29 July to hold them. The parties will then have until 19 November to register their legislative and municipal candidates with the TSE. Citizen Action, a non-governmental organization, will monitor the primary elections. Days after the deadline to convoke primary elections, Citizen Action reported that no political party published its full list of requirements for candidates to participate in their primaries. The official campaigning period sanctioned by the TSE will span from 27 October 2026 to 24 February 2027.

Nuevas Ideas

In February 2026, Ernesto Castro, the president of the Legislative Assembly, stated that the opposition winning 16 seats in the Legislative Assembly would "cause instability" ("") and "dismantle the state of exception" (""). Later that month, Castro announced that he will run for re-election to the Legislative Assembly and that Nuevas Ideas aimed to win all 60 seats in the Legislative Assembly. Castro has not ruled out forming coalitions with other parties.

Nuevas Ideas held its legislative and municipal primary elections on 12 July. Nuevas Ideas opened registration for primary pre-candidacies on 28 June. By 30 June, 47 of Nuevas Ideas' 54 deputies announced that they will run for re-election. In total, 81 pre-candidates participated in the legislative primary election. Of the party's 60 nominated candidates, 43 were incumbent deputies and a further 7 were incumbent supplement deputies. Additionally, 19 of Nuevas Ideas' 28 mayors are seeking re-election.

Nationalist Republican Alliance

In September 2025, ARENA party president Carlos García Saade confirmed that ARENA will participate in the 2027 election. In a February 2026 interview with Encuentro TV, Saade said that El Salvador needs a "balance of power" ("") in the Legislative Assembly. He also stated that ARENA would not vote to free gang members arrested during the Salvadoran gang crackdown. Saade announced that the party eliminated a requirement for deputy candidates needing to be a member of ARENA for 5 years to run. Joel Sánchez, ARENA's 2024 presidential candidate, remarked on the Las Cosas Como Son show that he believed the opposition could win an additional seat in the Legislative Assembly.

In January 2026, ARENA deputy Marcella Villatoro announced that the party has compiled its list of candidates for the Legislative Assembly from the San Salvador Department. Villatoro stated that ARENA expects to win "the largest possible number" ("") of seats in the Legislative Assembly. On 13 February 2026, Milagro Navas announced that she will run for re-election as Mayor of La Libertad Este. She is ARENA's only mayor and the only one of El Salvador's 44 mayors aligned with the opposition. ARENA held its primary election on 26 July, having postponed them from 19 July. In August, Saade stated that ARENA would not form coalitions with any political party. That same month, he stated that the party aimed to win 10 seats in the Legislative Assembly and 12 municipalities, further criticizing parties that aimed to win 30 to 40 seats by accusing them of lying.

Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front

On 7 December 2025, Flores announced that the FMLN will participate in the 2027 election. He added that the party was open to forming coalitions in the legislative and municipal elections to defeat Bukele's allies but ruled out forming coalitions with ARENA. The FMLN eliminated a rule requiring its electoral candidates to be party members, referring to non-party candidates as "citizen candidates" (""). Flores has announced that he will lead the FMLN's 2027 electoral campaign. According to Flores, the FMLN hopes to win at least one seat in the Legislative Assembly.

The FMLN held its primary elections on 26 July 2026. In April, Flores announced that the FMLN would allow candidates from the political right to run as members of the FMLN, stating that the FMLN was no longer a party of guerrillas. In June, Flores alleged that several businessmen were interested in seeking office with the FMLN but were supposedly threatened with financial persecution by tax authorities. In August, Flores announced that the FMLN would not form a coalitions with ARENA or Vamos.

Grand Alliance for National Unity

In February 2026, Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) vice president Guillermo Gallegos stated that GANA aimed to increase its number of mayors two- or three-fold. Party affiliate Maximiliano Díaz stated that the party sought to return to the Legislative Assembly after having lost all its seats in the 2024 election, adding that "[GANA] wants to be associates, not accomplices" ("") and that GANA wants to serve as a "constructive opposition" ("").

Gallegos has stated that the party is open to forming legislative and municipal coalitions with any political party with the exception of ARENA, the FMLN, and Vamos. In April 2026, Gallegos stated that the party was in negotiations to form municipal coalitions with Nuevas Ideas, the National Coalition Party (PCN), the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), and Solidary Force (FS). GANA will hold its legislative and municipal primary elections from 1 June to 29 July.

In March 2026, Salvador Menéndez, the mayor of La Paz Oeste, announced that he will not seek re-election in 2027.

Vamos

In December 2025, Vamos deputy Claudia Ortiz stated that Vamos will not form coalitions with any other party. In February 2026, Ortiz stated that she was evaluating the possibility of her seeking re-election to the Legislative Assembly. She also stated that the party was interested in nominating candidates in the municipal elections. She also announced that the party would form alliances with leaders in "different social sectors" ("") but would not form coalitions with ARENA or the FMLN, citing that they "had not been allies the people" (""). According to Ortiz, Vamos projects that it will win at least 16 seats in the Legislative Assembly.

On 16 March, she stated that the party will focus on the legislative and municipal elections rather than on the presidential election. She stated that the party would soon announce the date of its primary election. Vamos will field legislative candidates in all 14 departments for the first time in its history, and party leader Cesia Rivas stated that the party hoped to win a deputy in each department and up to 2 or 3 in La Libertad, San Miguel, San Salvador, and Santa Ana.