On June 22nd, 2023, the Special Law for Municipal Restructuring came into effect, eight days after its publication in the Official Gazette. This legislation modifies the number of municipalities in Salvadoran territory, decreasing from the previously known 262 to a total of 44. Despite this reduction, the territorial structure and names of the existing municipalities will be preserved, albeit undergoing a renaming to "districts", organized into groups formed by the newly created 44 municipalities. The provisions of this law are of a special nature; therefore, they will prevail over any others that contradict them.

One of the considerations for the approval of the law establishes that the review of the current structure of municipalities reveals that only 31 municipalities (out of 262) meet the criterion of having a population exceeding fifty thousand people. The majority of the remaining municipalities also do not meet the requirement of having a population center of more than twenty thousand inhabitants, reaching even extreme cases in which several municipalities have less than a thousand residents. From an economic and financial perspective of the municipalities, many of them do not meet the requirement of having adequate own and tax resources to effectively manage local government and provide essential public services to their community. Therefore, according to Article 1 of the law, the territory of El Salvador for its administration will continue to be divided into the current fourteen departments, with forty-four municipalities and two hundred sixty-two municipal districts. The names of these newly established municipalities will be determined according to the department to which they are attached, incorporating the cardinal point indicating their location. The Municipal Council continues to hold the highest authority in the municipality and its districts, chaired by a Mayor and establishing its headquarters in the municipal territory; they will approve the guidelines for the organization and functioning of the districts and their relationship with their municipality. Regarding municipal tax laws and the respective municipal ordinances approved by the Municipal Councils prior to this Law, as well as the general and specific legislation of each municipality, they will remain in force, and will persist until both the Legislative Assembly and the Municipal Councils of the reduced municipalities ratify, reform, or approve new provisions.

The implementation of this restructuring will not affect the validity of the Unique Identity Documents of citizens, personal passports, driver's licenses, or any other document legally issued for Salvadorans or foreigners. Likewise, the deadlines and obligations agreed upon by the municipalities transformed into districts will remain in force.

Finally, the municipal restructuring will be effective for the upcoming Municipal Council elections on March 3rd, 2024. Political parties participating must include in their lists the maximum possible representation of candidates residing in the districts that make up said municipality. Based on the aforementioned law, all municipal denominations in private and public documents issued must now bear the new nomenclature. An example of this would be checks, public deeds, writings accompanying requests to judges, administrative authorities, or others. These must carry as a model, "in the city of San Salvador Centro" or, even more specific, "in the District of San Salvador, Municipality of San Salvador Centro", etc.