El Salvador approves indefinite presidential re -election, expanding the presidential conditions

San Salvador, El Salvador – The Party of the El Salvador President Nayib Bukele approved the constitutional changes in the national meeting of the country on Thursday that make indefinite presidential re -election possible and extend the presidential conditions for up to six years.

Legislator Ana Figueroa of the new ideas had proposed the changes to five articles of the Constitution. The proposal also included eliminating the second round of the elections where the two top voices from the first round face.

New ideas and his allies in the national meeting quickly approved the proposals with the superma birthday they have. The mood went on with 57 for and three against.

Bukele won overwhelming re -election last year despite a constitutional prohibition, after the Supreme Court selected by his party in 2021 had selected that the re -election allowed a second term of five years.

Figueroa argued on Thursday that federal legislators and mayors can seek re -election as often as they want.

“They all had the possibility of re -election through popular mood, the only exception so far has been presidency,” said Figueroa.

She also suggested that the current term of Bukele, planned to end on 1 June 2029, instead to complete on 1 June 2027 to place presidential and conference elections according to the same schedule. It would also enable Bukele to look for a longer term two years earlier.

Marcela Villatoro of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena), one of the three votes against the proposals, told her colleague legislators that “democracy in El Salvador has died!”

“You do not realize what indefinite re -election entails: it brings an accumulation of power and weakens democracy …

Suecy Callejas, the vice -president of the meeting, said that “the power has returned to the only place where it is really with the Salvadoran people.”

Bukele did not comment immediately.

Bukele, who once called himself ‘the coolest dictator of the world’, is very popular, largely because of his harsh fight against the powerful street gangs of the country.

Voters are willing to overlook the evidence that his administration like others before it had negotiated with the gangs, before looking for a state of emergency that suspended some constitutional rights and were authorities to arrest and imprison tens of thousands of people.

His success with safety and has inspired political imitators in the region who want to replicate its style.