Presidents in El Salvador can now run for re-election as many times as they like, and their term limits will also be one year longer — thanks to a recent amendment in the country’s constitution.
The Legislative Assembly and the New Ideas party, which El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele is a member of, voted on the constitutional changes on Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
The proposed amendments passed with a vote of 57 – 3.
“This is quite simple, El Salvador: Only you will have the power to decide how long you wish to support the work of any public official, including your president,” said lawmaker Ana Figueroa, the New Ideas party member who proposed the constitutional changes, according to Reuters.
“You have the power to decide how long you support your president and all elected officials,” she continued
Prior to the vote, presidents weren’t allowed to run for immediate re-election.
Though that didn’t stop Bukele, who won a landslide re-election in 2024 that critics said was unconstitutional, according to Fox News.
Now, presidents can be re-elected indefinitely, and their term limits will be six years instead of five.
Figueroa proposed changes to five articles of El Salvador’s constitution. One of those changes eliminated run-off voting, where the two candidates with the most votes in the first round face off in a second.
Should all presidents have term limits?
While the recent amendments open the door for Bukele to serve a third term, critics say the changes pose a threat to democracy.
“Today, democracy has died in El Salvador,” said Marcela Villatoro, a Republican National Alliance member who voted “no” to the amendments, according to Reuters.
“You don’t realize what indefinite re-election brings: It brings an accumulation of power and weakens democracy. … There’s corruption and clientelism because nepotism grows and halts democracy and political participation,” Villatoro said, according to AP.
Bukele told Time Magazine in 2024 that he had no intentions of running for a third term.
But a president leaving office in El Salvador faces certain risks.
Three of Bukele’s predecessors have been either arrested or indicted, according to Time.
“I used to be the safest person in the country. I had bodyguards and armored cars,” Bukele told Time. “Now the country has safety, but I do not. I traded my security for that of the Salvadoran public.
“As I said, everything in life has a cost.”
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