El Salvador’s National Assembly on Thursday approved sweeping changes to the nation’s Constitution, paving the way for President Nayib Bukele, who is in his second term in office, to run for re-election indefinitely.
The legislature, in which Mr. Bukele’s party holds a supermajority, voted to end presidential term limits and extend a president’s term in office from five years to six, according to the National Assembly’s X account.
Mr. Bukele was first elected in 2019 and successfully ran in 2024 for a second term, even though legal scholars said at the time that El Salvador’s Constitution barred a president from serving consecutive terms. After Mr. Bukele’s legislative allies installed new judges on the Supreme Court, the court reinterpreted the Constitution and cleared the way for the president to run again.
The 44-year-old president has consolidated power while in office, leading his Nuevas Ideas party to its supermajority in the legislature and cracking down on gangs through mass arrests. Killings and extortion by gangs have gone down dramatically under Mr. Bukele, but civil liberties have also deteriorated, Salvadoran human rights defenders say.
