The New Ideas (NI) party has officially announced the candidacy of Salvadoran President, Nayib Bukele, for the 2024 elections.
The announcement comes despite past claims of unconstitutionality regarding presidential re-election.
Xavi Zablah Bukele, the president of NI and the president’s cousin, announced, confirming that Bukele has been chosen as the party’s presidential candidate for the upcoming elections.
Bukele declared his intention to run for re-election in September 2022 following a change in the stance by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice.
Previously, the law required a ten-year gap before a president could seek re-election.
However, a recent resolution states that a president can seek a new term after requesting a license “six months before the beginning of the presidential term”.
This would mean that Bukele would govern for the first six months of his fifth year and step down from the presidency in January 2024.
This move has raised legal questions, with several lawyers and the Faculty of Jurisprudence of the state University of El Salvador suggesting that Bukele’s re-election could violate several constitutional articles.
Bukele initially came to power in 2019 with the extreme right-wing party Gran Alianza por la Unidad Nacional (Gana) due to delays in registering his party NI.