El Salvador: Specialists warn that the Supreme Court’s decision to enable the re-election of Najib Boukeel violates the constitution

Generates the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice of El Salvador to certify the re-election of the president This Saturday is a concern in various sectors, who are skeptical about it because they consider that it does not respect the constitution It opens the door to rebellion.

“With what happened yesterday, a large part of the constitution’s rocky articles were violated,” the director of the Foundation for Law Enforcement Studies (FESBAD), Sail Baños, told AFP., referring to the decision of the Constitutional Chamber of the Court.

Banios cited one of the articles of the constitution as No. 88, which states that “alternation in the exercise of the presidency is necessary to maintain the consistent form of government and political order. Violation of this criterion enforces rebellion.”

Friday night, The court has given the green light to President Neb Bukele to run for re-election If you see fit. The president has yet to comment on the decision.

The court ruling, addressed to the Supreme Electoral Court, allows “a person who holds the presidency of the republic and was not president in the immediate preceding period to participate in the electoral competition for the second time.”

The constitutional chamber judges who reinterpreted the constitution were appointed in May, after the ruling legislature removed the five judges who made up them.. Prosecutor General Raul Melara was also removed from office at the time.

Former judges in the Constitutional Chamber have argued that Article 152 prohibits the re-election of anyone who “has held the presidency of the republic for more than six consecutive months or not, during the period immediately preceding, or during the six months preceding the beginning of the presidential term.” So before the president has to wait two terms to run again.

The parliamentary group of the former leftist guerrilla party of the Farabundo Marti Front confirmed on Twitter that the judicial decision “clearly violates the Constitution” which it condemned and rejected “strongly”.

The first institution to rule on the ruling was the Supreme Electoral Court, which stated in a statement that it would “comply” with the court’s decision.

Since court decisions are “non-appealable and mandatory”, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal stresses that it will “comply with the provisions” that specify the “option to register” for the president “for a second term, if he so desires and if he is a legally registered political party that nominates him for this position”.

Bukele, 40, has a high level of popularity that allowed him to reach the presidency in 2019, giving the merciful coup the three-decade long-established right-wing and left-wing parties in El Salvador. Described by some as being close to the city, but criticized by the opposition for its authoritarian nuances, Bukele’s popularity has increased due to his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic with the construction of a modern hospital and a rapid vaccination plan, according to analysts.

Since last May, his party, New Ideas, has dominated Congress, allowing it to govern without a hitch.

Bukele’s five-year term ends on May 31, 2024 and thanks to this decision, he can participate in the elections in the same year to seek re-election.

“The Constitutional Chamber of El Salvador – which Bukele took over in May this year – allowed Bukele to run for re-election,” Human Rights Watch Americas director José Miguel Vivanco responded on Twitter.

Vivanco warned that “democracy in El Salvador is on the brink” of following “the same scenario (to interpret the constitution) that Daniel Ortega (in Nicaragua) and Juan Orlando Hernandez (in Honduras) used”.

“Now we are in a much darker era, we need to take a look at what actions this administration will take in commemoration on September 15,” warned Laura Andrade, director of the Institute for Public Opinion at Jesuit University. Central America (California St.).

By September 15, when El Salvador and other Central American countries celebrate their 200 years of independence, Vice President Felix Olloa will present Bukele with a constitutional reform bill that also extends the presidential term from five to six years.

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