Nayib Bukele officially announces his candidacy for re-election in El Salvador

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele officially announced that he will run for re-election in 2024. Bukele will thus challenge the Salvadoran Constitution, which in principle prevents a president from running for a second consecutive office.

Bukele's announcement fulfilled the promise that the president made months ago, despite the legal impossibility. He did so surrounded by followers who gathered around the headquarters of the Superior Electoral Tribunal, where Bukele went to meet with the board and make his candidacy for the February 2024 presidential elections official. Along with Bukele, Félix Ulloa will again run along side him for vice president.

A second five-year term would give Bukele the presidency until 2029. For now, nothing seems to prevent the most popular president in the country's history from continuing his campaign naturally. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal accepted his candidacy as leader of the Nuevas Ideas party. Bukele presented his candidacy just hours before the deadline.

President Bukele has not undertaken any constitutional reform in order to be re-elected, but he seems content to move forward ignoring the law. At the moment, the Salvadoran judiciary has yet to stop the process initiated by Bukele, with the complicity of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.

In 2021, two years after becoming president, Bukele dismissed five judges from the Salvadoran Constitutional Court. The replacements placed in office by the president in principle supported the his re-election, a historical milestone, despite the clarity of the Salvadoran Constitution regarding consecutive re-election.

Nayib Bukele so far has no rival in the 2024 elections. His tough stance on gangs was one of the key achievements of his presidency. Violence dropped drastically in the country, to levels never seen before. The results, together with a successful communication campaign, gave Bukele a popularity rate close to 90%, the highest in Latin America.