Legislature in El Salvador greenlights Bukele to be president for life
Constitutional reform initiative would allow indefinite re-election
El Salvadoran lawmakers have proposed Constitutional reforms that would allow Nayib Bukele to remain president for life. Bukele’s party, Nuevas Ideas, holds a supermajority in the Legislative Assembly, which acts as a rubber-stamp for the President’s policies.
The changes would allow indefinite presidential re-election, extend presidential terms to 6 years, and eliminate second rounds as part of election processes: allowing a first round win with a simple plurality.
The reform would also shorten Bukele’s current term so that it ends in 2027 instead of 2029, in order to coincide with the legislative and municipal elections.
The amendment will have to be ratified by the same legislature in order to take effect, an easily cleared hurdle.
“Historically, re-election has been permitted in El Salvador for almost all elected positions, without prohibitions or conditions,” and “the only exception so far has been the presidency,” said Nuevas Ideas representative Ana Figueroa.
Bukele defied the Salvadoran Constitution in 2024 to run for re-election.
Bukele began his second consecutive term on June 1, despite several articles of the Constitution prohibiting it.
Marcela Villatoro of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena), one of three votes against the proposals, told her fellow lawmakers that “Democracy in El Salvador has died!”
“You don’t realize what indefinite reelection brings. It brings an accumulation of power and weakens democracy … there’s corruption and clientelism because nepotism grows and halts democracy and political participation,” she said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio loudly criticized Hugo Chávez, Daniel Ortega, and Evo Morales for changing their constitutions to lift term limits in order to stay in power.
He has been silent on El Salvador.
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Is there a specific reason bukele wants to shorten his current term to 2027 instead of 2029 or as you wrote in the article that would just be a consequence of the reforms?