Bukele Files to Run Again, Aiming for a Third Term to 2033
Politics
Key Facts
—The move. President Nayib Bukele registered his pre-candidacy for a third consecutive term.
—The vote. The general election is set for February twenty-eighth, 2027, with party primaries on July twelfth.
—The reform. A 2025 constitutional change removed term limits and extended the term to six years.
—The horizon. A win would keep him in office until 2033, some fourteen consecutive years.
—The standing. A May 2026 poll put his approval near ninety-three percent, among the region’s highest.
One of Latin America’s most popular and most debated leaders has taken the formal step toward staying in power for another decade. The Bukele third term bid is now official, and it reshapes El Salvador’s political calendar.
For a reader following the region, the significance is the precedent. A president who was once constitutionally barred from consecutive re-election is now moving toward a third straight mandate.
The step itself was procedural but clear. According to reporting on the ruling party’s filing, Bukele and vice-president Félix Ulloa registered their pre-candidacy with Nuevas Ideas for the 2027 election.
How the Bukele third term became possible
The path was cleared last year. On July thirty-first, 2025, the Nuevas Ideas-dominated Legislative Assembly approved and ratified a constitutional reform in a single session, without prior debate.
The changes were sweeping. They removed limits on presidential re-election, extended each term from five to six years, moved the presidential vote forward to 2027 and scrapped the second-round runoff.
The timing reset the clock. Bukele began his second term in June 2024, a mandate that would have run to 2029, but the reform brought the next election forward to coincide with legislative and municipal votes.
The primary is a formality. The party’s internal vote is set for July twelfth, and Bukele is not expected to face any challenger, leaving the general election on February twenty-eighth, 2027 as the real contest.
Popularity and the democratic debate
His support is unusually high. A CID-Gallup poll in May 2026 put his approval near ninety-three percent, driven mainly by a sharp fall in violence under his security policies.
Supporters frame it as choice. They argue the reforms simply let citizens keep a leader they trust, and they credit his state of emergency with cutting homicides by more than ninety percent, by official figures.
Critics frame it as concentration of power. Human-rights groups point to the multi-year emergency regime, reports of arbitrary detentions and the erosion of checks on the executive, calling it a democratic setback.
For foreign residents, the near-term effect is stability, not change. The security gains that drew many newcomers remain in place, and no rules shift on the strength of a candidacy filing before the 2027 vote.
The economic backdrop is the softer spot. While security drives his popularity, polls show rising public concern about the cost of living, and that is the pressure point his next campaign will have to address.
The wider region is watching closely. Bukele’s security model has admirers among other Latin American leaders, so his continuity also keeps alive a template that governments elsewhere have flirted with copying.
The new rules also change the math. By scrapping the runoff, the reform lets a candidate win with the most votes rather than a majority, a change that favours a dominant incumbent with a fragmented opposition.
The opposition is thin. Traditional parties like ARENA and the FMLN have been reduced to a handful of seats, leaving little organised challenge to the ruling party’s grip on the assembly.
The filing also formalises a long-signalled intent. Late in 2025 Bukele mused that he would like to govern for another decade, and the registration turns that stated wish into a concrete step.
What did Bukele register for?
He registered his pre-candidacy with the ruling Nuevas Ideas party to seek a third consecutive term in El Salvador’s 2027 general election, alongside vice-president Félix Ulloa. The party primary is set for July twelfth.
How can the Bukele third term happen?
A constitutional reform passed in July 2025 removed presidential term limits, extended the term from five to six years and moved the election to 2027. The change was approved and ratified in a single legislative session.
How long could he stay in power?
If he wins the February 2027 election, Bukele would govern until 2033, giving him roughly fourteen consecutive years in office. He first took power in 2019 and began a second term in 2024.
Read More from The Rio Times