Pro-Bitcoiner Nayib Bukele is widely expected to win his second term as president, with early official voting data indicating his party has won 87% of the votes — though the final results are yet to be released.

Official results as of Feb. 5, 5:30 am UTC from the country’s electoral authority the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) show Bukele’s populist Nueva (New) Ideas party leads by over 1.1 million votes with 31.5% of the vote counted.

In total, New Ideas is closing in on 1.3 million votes, followed by just over 110,000 for the left wing Farabundo Martí Front (FMLN) led by Manuel Flores while nearly 97,000 votes have gone to the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) led by Joel Sánchez.

El Salvador initial polls show Nayib Bukele to win re-election image 0 Translated initial results show Bukele's New Ideas part with significant early lead. Source: TSE

Earlier, CID Gallup reported exit polls showed Bukele’s party held 87% of the votes while Flores and Sanchez respectively held 7% and 4%. If Bukele maintains his lead he will be sworn in as president on a five-year term and serve until 2029.

Nayib Biukele es reelegido como presidente en El Salvador (CID Gallup - Boca de Urna) #EleccionesElSalvador2024 #cidgallup #bocadeurna pic.twitter.com/27LNpVknqj

— CID Gallup (@cidgallup) February 5, 2024

In an X post, Bukele proclaimed victory before any official results were announced and said his own party’s data shows he had won the election with more than 85% of the votes and a minimum of 58 out of 60 deputies in the assembly. 

A spokesman for the country’s National Bitcoin Office told Cointelegraph that it expects an even higher proportion of votes going to Bukele once the official results are out. 

El Salvador initial polls show Nayib Bukele to win re-election image 1 An X post from Bukele about the expected results of thEl Salvador's election. Source: X

Nayib Bukele made Bitcoin ( BTC ) legal tender in the country in September 2021, among other initiatives supporting the cryptocurrency.

Last week, Vice President Félix Ulloa reportedly confirmed Bukele’s Bitcoin strategy wouldn’t change if he were elected, according to a Reuters report on Feb. 1.

The Salvadoran president is also known for his crackdown on gang crime. Last year, Amnesty International criticized Bukele’s leadership for an “alarming regression” in the protection of human rights, which risks replacing gang violence with “state violence.”

Related: El Salvador’s Bitcoin portfolio swings to profit

Bukele’s campaign for second term has also been met with controversy.

Several critics, such as Salvadoran lawyer Alfonso Fajardo, have argued the country’s constitution prohibits Bukele from seeking a second consecutive term.

“Today is a good day to remember that immediate presidential re-election is prohibited up to 7 times by the Constitution,” Fajardo said when news broke that Bukele filed paperwork to run again in October.

El Salvador has been touted as potentially becoming the “Singapore of the Americas” by Vaneck strategy adviser Gabor Gurbacs, who expects more investment capital and immigration to flow into the country in the coming years.

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Update (Feb. 5, 5:30 am UTC): This article has been updated to include initial official voting data from the TSE.

Additional reporting by Jesse Coghlan.