New Ideas Party Formalizes Bukele's Presidential Candidacy

On Sunday night, the political party Nuevas Ideas (NI) officially announced the candidacy of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for the 2024 elections, in which he will seek re-election.

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"The country is hereby informed that our President Nayib Bukele has officially been chosen as the candidate for the presidency by the Nuevas Ideas party to participate in the 2024 elections," stated NI President Xavi Zablah Bukele, who is Nayib's cousin.

Bukele announced his intention to seek re-election in Sep. 2022, one year after the Supreme Court's Constitutional Chamber changed its stance on immediate presidential re-election.

Prior to the decision of the constitutional judges, who were elected through a process criticized for its irregularities in the Legislative Assembly, a president had to wait ten years before attempting to run for the Presidency again.

The Constitutional Court's ruling states that in order to seek a new term, the President must request a leave of absence "six months before the start of the new presidential term."

In other words, Bukele would only govern for the first six months of his fifth year and would have to step down from the Presidency in January 2024.

Various lawyers have pointed out that Bukele's re-election would constitute a violation of several articles of the Constitution, such as the one stating that a person who has held the Presidency cannot "continue in their functions for even one more day."

Bukele came to power in 2019 with the far-right party Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) as the electoral vehicle, following the delay in the registration of his NI party.