El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly, dominated by President Nayib Bukele’s New Ideas (Ni) party, approved and ratified a reform on Thursday night that allows the indefinite presidential reelection in the country.
Ratification amends articles 75, 80, 133, 152 and 154 of the Magna Salvadorenha Carta, which also nullifies the second round of elections and increases the presidential term to six years.
The amendment had already been approved earlier on Thursday at the weekly legislative session, and President Salvadoran sent the document for publication in the Official Gazette. With proof of publication, the governor party presented, in a new session, the request for ratification, which was voted in minutes and was supported by 57 of the 60 deputies.
“It is up to ratify the Constitutional Reform Agreement,” says the approved decree, which includes a “transient disposition to enable reforms.”
This provision implies the reduction of the current presidential term for the year 2027, instead of 2029, in order to coincide with the presidential, legislative and municipal elections. Ratification obtained three opposite votes, the only opposition, and no deputy spoke before or after the vote.
In Article 152, it suppresses the excerpt that prohibited the candidacy for the presidency of “those who had the Presidency of the Republic for more than six months, consecutive or not, during the previous immediate period, or in the last six months prior to the beginning of the presidential period”.
During the approval session, Deputy Marcela Villatoro, by opposing Republican Nationalist Alliance (Arena), criticized the reform. According to her, the legislators “made a public confession of killing democracy disguised as legality” and “killed the constitution.”
Bukele began on June 1, 2024 his second consecutive term, although several articles of the Constitution ban it. The change was possible after the change of criteria from the Supreme Court Constitutional Room, appointed in a questionable process by the first legislature dominated by new ideas in 2021.
In February of that year, on presidential election day, Bukele was asked if he saw the need for a constitutional reform that included indefinite reelection and replied: “I think the constitutional reform is not necessary.”
In this same night session, a constitutional amendment was also ratified that seeks the departure of El Salvador from the Central American Parliament.
