El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has officially submitted the necessary paperwork on Thursday to run for re-election in the coming year. Despite concerns regarding his constitutional eligibility for a consecutive term, Bukele, aged 42, enjoys strong public support and had previously announced his intention to compete in the presidential election scheduled for February.
While critics question Bukele’s ability to seek a second term, citing a constitutional prohibition, the country’s top court, whose judges were appointed by the president’s New Ideas party-controlled Congress, ruled that he could run in 2021.
Bukele, who previously served as the mayor of San Salvador and is known for promoting bitcoin, achieved a significant political shift in El Salvador in 2019 by breaking the two-party dominance that had lasted for three decades.
According to a recent poll carried out by the Center for Citizen Studies at the Francisco Gavidia University, Bukele’s New Ideas party enjoys nearly 70% support, while its closest competitor barely reaches 4%.
Bukele’s popularity primarily stems from his aggressive crackdown on violent gangs in the country. Since the implementation of this policy early last year, over 75,000 suspected gang members have been arrested and as a result, violent crime rates have significantly decreased.
However, certain rights groups argue that the frequently implemented state of exception, which allows for the arrest and detention of individuals without proper due process, often leads to the imprisonment of innocent individuals who are denied the opportunity to mount a legal defense.
Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Stephen Coates
