El Salvador’s Bukele gets top court’s blessing to run for re-election

The top court in El Salvador has ruled that a president can serve two consecutive terms, opening the door for President Nayib Bukele to run again in 2024.

The Central American nation’s electoral authority said on Saturday it would adhere to the controversial decision by the Supreme Court.

The court ruled that the previously mandatory pause of 10 years between two terms as head of state was no longer necessary, effective immediately.

The ruling came four months after the Legislative Assembly, in which Bukele’s New Ideas party has the majority, voted to stack the Supreme Court with several judges close to Bukele.

Activists were outraged by the judiciary’s decision this weekend to reinterpret the constitution to the advantage of a president whom critics have repeatedly accused of authoritarian tendencies.

“Democracy in El Salvador is on the edge of the abyss,” the regional head of Human Rights Watch, Jose Miguel Vivanco, wrote on Twitter on Saturday after Bukele got the green light to immediately run for re-election.

The United States blasted the move, saying it “demonstrates a clear strategy to undermine judicial independence and remove a critical counterbalance on the executive branch.”

“This decline in democratic governance damages the relationship that the United States strives to maintain with the government of El Salvador and further erodes El Salvador’s international image as a democratic and trustworthy partner in the region,” US Department of State spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.

“The United States calls on President Bukele to demonstrate his stated commitment to democratic governance, including the separation of powers and the rule of law.”

Bukele, 40, won in 2019 on an anti-establishment, tough on crime platform. Making appearances in jeans and baseball caps, he appealed to young voters and others distrustful of traditional politics.

Critics say he quickly started following a path to dictatorship with his systematic disregard for the country’s separation of powers.

In February 2020, Bukele sent military troops to march on parliament to pressure lawmakers to approve his law enforcement funding request.

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