El Salvador clears path for endless Bukele rule by scrapping presidential term limits
Changes will allow indefinite presidential re-election, extend terms from five years to six and scrap run-offs
The party of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele approved constitutional changes in the country’s Legislative Assembly on Thursday that will allow indefinite presidential re-election and extend presidential terms to six years.
Lawmaker Ana Figueroa from the New Ideas party had proposed the changes to five articles of the constitution. The proposal also included eliminating the second round of the election where the two top vote-getters from the first round face off.
New Ideas and its allies in the Legislative Assembly quickly approved the proposals with the supermajority they hold. The vote passed with 57 in favour and three opposed.
Bukele overwhelmingly won re-election last year despite a constitutional ban, after Supreme Court justices selected by his party ruled in 2021 to allow re-election to a second five-year term.
Observers have worried that Bukele had a plan to consolidate power since at least 2021, when a newly elected Congress with a strong governing party majority voted to remove the magistrates of the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court. Those justices had been seen as the last check on the popular president.