The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has registered his candidacy to run in next year’s elections and has confirmed his intentions to be re-elected in office, despite the fact that a consecutive term is expressly prohibited by the Constitution of the Central American country. Bukele, in office since 2019, has registered the current vice president, Félix Ulloa, as his running mate. Both politicians will represent the Nuevas Ideas party, a formation created by Bukele from the Government and which now dominates Congress. The Salvadoran president thus clears up the few doubts that remained about whether he was willing to challenge the constitutional text with his re-election intentions.
Bukele presented his registration request before the Supreme Electoral Tribunal at the stroke of midnight on Thursday, surrounded by hundreds of supporters. “It will be the Salvadoran people who will decide if they want there to be re-election,” the president said using a loudspeaker. “The Salvadoran people will decide if they want to continue being the safest country on the continent or if we want to return to being the most insecure country in the world, as previous governments left it,” he added. Bukele has used his radical policies against gangs, a strategy questioned by human rights organizations, as a banner to get re-elected. “Five more, five more!” chanted the president’s supporters, referring to the years that the presidential term lasts. “Re-election, re-election!” they also said.
Bukele’s reelection plans were endorsed by the Constitutional Chamber, a body controlled by the president with judges. Although the Magna Carta, in its article 152, prohibits consecutive terms, the Judiciary developed an interpretation of the constitutional text that allows a sitting president to participate in the elections if he leaves office at least six months before the election. Bukele has followed it to the letter. If he wins the elections, something highly probable given his enormous popularity, he will go down in history as the first president to extend his term since the return of democracy to El Salvador.
Bukele, who has taken pains to ensure that he is not a dictator, has implemented a tough policy against the Salvadoran gangs, the Mara Salvatrucha 13 and Barrio 18, and has managed to reduce homicides to a minimum. The strategy is based on a state of emergency in force since March 2022. More than 71,000 people, allegedly gang members, have been arrested and imprisoned. Thousands of them are innocent and have no relationship with criminal organizations, as human rights defense organizations have documented. The strategy has returned to Salvadorans some peace on the ashes of civil guarantees and freedoms. Bukele offers his citizens another five years of this policy.
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