He Supreme Electoral Court (SEC) has given the go-ahead for Nayib Bukele can aspire to a second term in The Saviordespite prohibiting it in six articles of the Constitution since 1841. The electoral body agreed with four votes and the abstention of the magistrate Julio Olivo the party’s presidential formula New ideasheaded by Bukele and his vice president, Félix Ulloa, after “proving that they meet the legal requirements.”
In this way, on February 4, 2024, he will be able to stand for election to become the first president to face two consecutive terms in history democracy of El Salvador, something that only happened in this country with the dictator Maximiliano Hernandezwho was re-elected for the period 1939-1944, although a few months later he resigned after the non-violent insurrection promoted by university students and known as ‘Sit-down strike’.
Likewise, former President Elías Antonio Saca (2004-2009) also tried to do so in his day, who wanted to run again in the elections for the period 2014-2019, although the Constitutional Chamber prohibited him from doing so on the grounds that a The former president had to wait at least ten years to seek power again.
Precisely, article 154 of the Magna Carta sets the duration of the presidential term at five years “without the person who has exercised the Presidency being able to continue in his or her functions not even one more day.” Other articles that prevent a second term are article 248, which prohibits the constitutional reform that refers to alternation in the exercise of the Presidency of the Republic and article 75, which sanctions those who promote re-election with the loss of citizen rights. or the continuation of the president.
All of these articles were cited by the previous Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) when in 2014 it prohibited Saca from running for re-election in the ten years after leaving the position of president.