El Salvador’s Nuevas Ideas political party on Sunday chose President Nayib Bukele as its candidate for the early 2024 presidential election, despite the country’s constitution not allowing for consecutive presidential terms.
Bukele, whose first term began in 2019, said in September last year that he would seek re-election despite the ban on consecutive terms. In 2021, the country’s highest court – whose members were appointed by the Nuevas Ideas-controlled Congress – ruled that Bukele could seek a second term.
The court’s decision was criticized by human rights groups and the United States, which called it part of the decline of El Salvador’s democratic standards.
The president – who is favored by almost 70% of Salvadorans in the 2024 elections – and his vice president, Felix Ulloa, have yet to register as candidates with the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to formalize their candidacy. Their ticket was the only one issued during the internal elections of the Nuevas Ideas party.
Bukele, a 41-year-old businessman-turned-politician, took office in June 2019 after sweeping the presidential election, breaking 30 years of a two-party partnership between the right-wing ARENA and the left-wing FMLN, his former party.
His “war” on gangs in El Salvador led to the imprisonment of more than 66,000 people and earned Bukele unprecedented popularity. But it also brought accusations of non-governmental organizations for allegedly violating human rights and negotiating with criminals.
Bukele denied the allegations, but clandestine dealings with gangs were not uncommon in El Salvador. In May, former president Mauricio Funes was sentenced in absentia to 14 years in prison for negotiating with gangs.
Salvadorans will vote next February 4 to elect a president and vice president for the 2024-2029 term and legislators until 2027.
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