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| Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele |
El Salvador’s ruling party has endorsed President Nayib Bukele’s candidacy for the presidential elections scheduled for February 2027, paving the way for him to win a third consecutive presidential term.
The New Ideas (Nuevas Ideas) party, which holds a commanding majority in the Legislative Assembly, held its internal elections on Sunday and announced the results via its X platform on Monday. Vice President Félix Ulloa will once again be the running mate for Bukele.
Bukele, 44, assumed the presidency in June 2019 as the region's youngest president and continues to enjoy high approval ratings.
His re-election in February 2024, after securing approximately 85% of the valid votes, drew sharp criticism from constitutional law experts, who argued it violated the ban on consecutive presidential terms. They accuse Bukele of illegally replacing Constitutional Court judges and the Attorney General to consolidate power in his own hands. A
Constitutional Court ruling in September 2021 had permitted the president to be re-elected "for only one term."
In July 2025, the legislature, controlled by the ruling party, passed a constitutional amendment allowing the president to be re-elected an unlimited number of times. The amendment also eliminated the penalty of deprivation of civil rights for those who advocate for the president's re-election and removed the ban that prevented former presidential candidates from running again.
