The Central American country of El Salvador’s Parliament passed a constitutional amendment on Thursday (July 31) to abolish presidential term limits, allowing the current president Nayib Bukele to seek re-election indefinitely, sparking international attention.
El Salvador’s original constitution stipulated that the president could only serve for one term and prohibited re-election. However, the country’s Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that Bukele had the “right” to run for office again, and he successfully won a second term in 2024.
The New Ideas party led by Bukele holds an absolute majority in the parliament. Recently, party member Ana Figueroa proposed amending five articles of the constitution and eliminating the runoff system for presidential elections – which required a second round of voting between the top two candidates in the first round.
The Salvadoran Parliament quickly passed this amendment on Thursday, abolishing presidential term limits and extending the term from 5 to 6 years. Additionally, the amendment shortened Bukele’s current term by two years, bringing the next presidential election forward to 2027, aligning it with the previously staggered parliamentary and local elections.
The legislative assembly in the country operates as a unicameral legislature, with lawmakers serving a term of 3 years from May 2024 to April 2027. The merged voting schedule may be advantageous for the ruling party.
The voting results showed 57 in favor and 3 against the amendment.
Only a few opposition party members voiced their dissent, expressing concerns that this move would further consolidate one-party rule in the country. Marcela Villatoro, a member of the Republican Nationalist Alliance (ARENA), criticized, “Today, democracy in El Salvador is dead.”
Noah Bullock, the executive director of the human rights organization Cristosal, said, “On the day before the adjournment of parliament, without debate, no public notification, solely through a legislative vote, they changed the political system allowing the president to hold power indefinitely, we are thus continuing down the same path that dictators have long walked.”
Bukele, born in 1981, is currently 44 years old. He first assumed office as President of El Salvador in June 2019 and was re-elected in June 2024 for a second term, originally set for 5 years.
The BBC commented that Bukele is a controversial figure. His policies to combat gangs led to a significant decrease in homicides, gaining support from voters. However, human rights groups criticized his sweeping operations affecting innocent individuals. Following his election last year, Bukele told the media that he “did not believe it was necessary to make constitutional reforms,” but did not give a definitive answer on seeking a third term.
El Salvador is located in northern Central America, bordering Honduras to the northeast and Guatemala to the northwest. It is on the west coast along the Pacific Ocean, situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire volcanic seismic zone. On July 29 in local time, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck El Salvador’s border region with Guatemala. Four minutes later, another 5.6 magnitude earthquake followed. These earthquakes occurred several hours before a powerful 8.7 magnitude quake off the far eastern coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. So far this year, El Salvador has experienced 2994 earthquakes.
(*This article is based on a report from Reuters)