El Salvador Ends Presidential Term Limits, Allowing Nayib Bukele to Run Repeatedly

The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador on Thursday approved a series of constitutional reforms that eliminate presidential term limits and extend the duration of terms, paving the way for a possible reelection of President Nayib Bukele in the future.

The reforms were reportedly approved in an “exemption from processing” situation that allows for an expedited law approval without the need for its text to go through a parliamentary commission. The reforms were approved with a 57-3 vote from the overwhelming majority of the 53 lawmakers from President Bukele’s New Ideas (NI) party and three lawmakers from allied parties. All three opposition lawmakers voted against it.

Historically, all eight iterations of El Salvador’s constitution between 1841 and the current 1983 version contained clauses that either prohibited the immediate reelection of a president or forbade a president from ever being reelected.

The now-approved reforms modify four articles of the current 1983 Salvadoran constitution: 75, 80, 152, and 154, all of which are related to the matter of presidential terms. The modified text previously prohibited presidential reelections and punished those who promoted presidential reelections with a complete loss of citizen rights.

According to the Salvadoran newspaper La Prensa Grafica, the reforms eliminated the language in Article 75 that originally stated that “those who subscribe acts, proclamations or adhesions to promote or support the reelection or continuation of the President of the Republic, or use direct means to that end” would lose their citizens rights.

Article 80, which established the electoral result threshold conditions that call for a runoff election, was modified to eliminate runoff elections altogether, allowing any political party to win an election by obtaining a simple majority of the votes cast.

The reform also modified Article 152, removing conditions that stated that a person may not be candidate for president if they have “held the office of President of the Republic for more than six months, consecutive or not, during the immediately preceding period, or within the last six months prior to the beginning of the months prior to the beginning of the presidential term.”

Lastly, Article 154, which establishes a five-year presidential term, was modified to extend the term to six years. To implement the new reforms, the lawmakers approved a transitional measure that prematurely ends Bukele’s current 2024-2029 five-year term in 2027 to line up presidential, municipal, and legislative elections.

Salvadoran lawmaker Ana Figueroa, who presented the proposal to parliament, reportedly justified the changes by arguing the need to give voters sovereignty over how long officials should remain in office, asserting, “only you will decide how long you support your president and all elected officials.”

“We are contributing to the refounding of this country, to this project that was denied us for so many years… How wonderful it is to be able to make decisions and establish regulatory frameworks that allow us to respond to the needs of these times,” New Ideas lawmaker Elisa Rosales reportedly said, stressing that the reform is necessary to guarantee the success of Bukele’s policy goals.

Bukele, who is presently serving his second term after being first elected in 2019, was controversially reelected in early 2024 after he availed himself of a legal loophole that, according to the pro-Bukele Salvadoran Supreme Court, allowed him to run for reelection.

The top court argued in a 2021 ruling that, according to their interpretation of the now-modified Article 152 dispositions, a president could run for immediate reelection so long as he or she resigned six months before the end of their term. President Bukele “stepped down” from the presidency on November 30, 2023, to comply with the ruling, leaving his personal secretary Claudia Juana Rodríguez de Guevara as figurehead president until the start of Bukele’s second term in mid-2024.

Despite expressing concerns over the power accrued by the ruling New Ideas party, the Organization of American States (OAS) described the 2024 presidential election as calm and peaceful, with the electorate heading to the polls “en masse and without coercion” and leaving “no doubts” over the results. Bukele obtained an overwhelming 85 percent of the votes in the election.

Bukele has boasted consistently high approval ratings throughout his presidency largely due to his successful crackdown on El Salvador’s gang violence executed through a continuously renewed “state of exception” decree that imposes borderline martial law and restricts civil liberties such as freedom of assembly. The decree has allowed Salvadoran authorities to curtail the activities of gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha-13 (MS-13) and 18th Street, leading to the “virtual disappearance” of the gangs in Salvadoran territory and a dramatic reduction in homicides and other crimes.

Lawmaker Marcela Villatoro of the center-right Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) party, who cast one of the only three votes against the reforms, reportedly denounced the changes by holding a sign that read “democracy has died today” during the parliamentary session. She asserted to reporters that the reforms were “approved without consultation, in a crude and cynical manner.”

President Bukele has not publicly commented on the constitutional reforms at press time. In June, Bukele, who has joked about being the “world’s coolest dictator,” said during a speech that he does not care that mainstream media call him a “dictator” as long as his policies continue keeping the people of El Salvador safe from gangs.

“Personally, I have been called a dictator in every media outlet that has wanted and been able to do so. From Salvadoran pamphlets to the most prestigious international pamphlets” Bukele said. 

“You know what? I don’t care if they call me a dictator,” he added, and asserted, “I’d rather they call me a dictator than see Salvadorans being killed in the streets.”

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.