El Salvador's National Assembly extends Presidential term to six years

San Salvador, August 1 El Salvador's National Assembly on Thursday approved changes in the country's constitution, that will allow President Nayib Bukele, who is in his second term in office, to run for re-election indefinitely. Bukele's party, which holds a supermajority in the legislature, voted to end presidential term limits and extend a president's term in office from five to six years, according to a National Assembly statement released on X.

The amendments to five articles of the constitution were approved on Thursday with 57 lawmakers voting in its favour, while three voted against it, according to the National Assembly statement. The Nuevas Ideas lawmaker, Ana Figueroa, who proposed the amendment, after the vote, noted that the changes will ensure that presidential polls coincide with legislative and municipal elections.

Figueroa stated that legislators and local officials like mayors, do not have term limits. The current term of Nayib Bukele ends in 2029. However, Ana Figueroa, noted that his term should end in 2027 to coincide with legislative polls, at which point he could contest for six-year term.

Bukele was first elected in 2019 and he successfully ran for second term in 2024. At the time, the legal scholars had said that El Salvador's Constitution did not allow president to serve consecutive terms. After Bukele's legislative allies selected new judges in the Supreme Court, the court reinterpreted the constitution and paved the way for Bukele to run again for presidency.

While being in office, the 44-year-old El Salvador President has consolidated power, leading his Nuevas Ideas party to its supermajority in the legislature and acting against gangs through mass arrests. Killings and extortion by gangs have reduced under Bukele-led government. However, Salvadoran human rights defenders have said that civil liberties have deteriorated.

Earlier in June, Bukele said that he would rather be called dictator than allow criminals to function with impunity. He also called himself US President Donald Trump's closest ally in Latin America. Bukele agreed for imprisoning immigrants expelled from the United States under Trump's deportation plan, in exchange for the return to El Salvador of members of the MS-13 gang who had been in US custody.

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