The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, presented the documentation to be re-elected in the next 2024 presidential elections in February.
Bukele, a Bitcoin advocate, received strong support from the public on October 26 after his party officially nominated him to run for re-election.
"Five more [years], five more and not one step back,โ Bukele said in a speech before thousands of Salvadorans. โWe need five years to continue improving our country,โ he added.
| BREAKING NEWS: Shouting โfive more, five more and not one step backโ Nayib Bukele gives his speech in front of thousands of Salvadorans after registering his presidential candidacy for re-election. โWe need 5 years to continue improving our country.โ pic.twitter.com/ApaP8yyQBm
โ Eduardo Menoni (@eduardomenoni) October 27, 2023
Bukele came to power in 2019 when his political party, Nuevas (Nuevas) Ideas, broke three decades of bipartisan dominance between the Nationalist Republican Alliance and the Farabundo Martรญ National Liberation Front (FMNLB).
However, despite his popularity among the local population, critics such as Salvadoran lawyer Alfonso Fajardo maintain that the country's constitution prohibits Bukele from being ineligible to seek a second consecutive term.
โToday is a good day to remember that immediate presidential reelection is prohibited up to seven times by the Constitution,โ he said on October 26.
Nayib Bukele is running for re-election in El Salvador even though he is prohibited in 7 articles of the constitution. The constitution written after our peace agreements, after our bloody civil war. This is unconstitutional. https://t.co/ordgib7WMq
โDaniel Alvarenga (@puchicadanny) October 27, 2023
However, in September 2021, the Supreme Court of El Salvador ruled that presidents can run for consecutive elections.
Nuevas Ideas has the support of 70% of the country's voting population, according to Reuters, which cited a study carried out by a Salvadoran university. His closest competitor only received 4% of the total votes.
One of New Ideas' competitors, FMNLB, filed a lawsuit in June 2021 alleging Bukele's Bitcoin Adoption Program It is unconstitutional. However, this complaint had little basis since Bukele and El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender three months later, September 2021.
The Bukele government has also implemented other technology-friendly policies aimed at strengthening the country's economy, such as the elimination of all taxes on technological innovations.
Gabor Gurbacs, strategic advisor at VanEck, recently said that El Salvador has the potential become the โSingapore of the Americasโ.
Related: El Salvador launches first Bitcoin mining pool as Volcano Energy partner with Luxor
Much of Bukele's popularity comes from his harsh crackdown on MS-13, a multinational gang that contributed to El Salvador. recording the highest homicide rates in the world six years ago.
As a result of the crackdown, El Salvador's homicide rate has increased. fallen a staggering 92.6% from its peak of 106 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015 to 7.8 in 2022. It now has one of the lowest crime rates in Latin America.
However, the United Nations and other critics argue El Salvador violated human rights laws by imprisoning 65,000 people without granting them legal rights to defend themselves.
El Salvador's presidential elections will take place on February 4, 2024.
Magazine: What it's really like to use Bitcoin in El Salvador
Post navigation
