Bukele’s re-election in El Salvador is consolidated: close to 70% of the country supports a second term

Nayib Bukele delivers a speech in front of the UN General Assembly.

Photo: EFE – Peter Foley

Nearly 70% of the Salvadoran population supports a re-election of President Nayib Bukele, despite the fact that the head of state’s decision to extend his term goes against the provisions of the Constitution, according to various experts.

According to a survey by the Investigation Unit of La Prensa Gráfica published this Tuesday, 68.3% of Salvadorans have a positive opinion or support the re-election of Bukele. Only 13.1% have a negative opinion or do not support it, while the rest have a neutral, indifferent opinion or have no opinion about it.

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The outlet noted that the interviewees were asked if immediate re-election should be allowed and 67.9% answered yes, 19.3% answered no and 12.9% did not answer the question. In September 2022, Bukele assured that he will run in the elections to govern El Salvador for the second time in a row.

Although the BBC points out that the Constitution contains at least six articles that prohibit “immediate re-election”. Since he has served in the presidential palace, Bukele has taken measures that are unconstitutional or debatable. Among them, to govern for 11 months through a state of emergency, which allows suspending constitutional rights and intensifying police and repressive tasks.

The study was carried out from November 9 to 12, 2022, a sample size of 1,000 individual interviews conducted in homes, a confidence level of 95% and a maximum margin of error of 3.2%.

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The possibility of Bukele being re-elected in 2024 was opened last September, when a questioned Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) modified a criterion on the subject.

Before said resolution, whoever held the Presidency had to wait ten years after concluding his term.

The main reasons for allowing immediate re-election, according to Salvadorans, “are the work that the current president is doing, that it is the population who should have the last word and that it can be useful for the continuation of some projects,” said the survey. .

Bukele is the first president of the Salvadoran democratic stage who will try to be re-elected, since this situation has not occurred since the time of the military dictatorship.

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For Salvador Anaya, in dialogue with the newspaper La Prensa, Bukele’s goal is to consolidate a “dynasty.” The lawyer who is an expert in constitutional issues explained that “definitely in the Salvadoran political and legal system immediate presidential re-election is constantly and repeatedly prohibited. Therefore, for the person to even present himself as a presidential candidate already constitutes a violation of the Constitution. What is being done here is consummating an autocratic and dictatorial regime in the country”.

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