Lawyers Call for Invalidation of Unconstitutional Resolution Allowing Bukele’s Re-election in El Salvador

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provide the content for a news article using this content Law experts requested to invalidate the resolution that allows the re-election of Bukele in El Salvador as unconstitutional. (PHOTO: EFE)

A group of lawyers asked the magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) this Thursday to declare “inapplicable” a resolution issued in 2021 by the Supreme Court of El Salvador that enables presidential re-election in the country, which has been classified by several experts as unconstitutional.

Various lawyers, including the Faculty of Jurisprudence of the state University of El Salvador, have indicated that Bukele’s re-election would violate various articles of the Constitution, such as the one that states that the person who has held the Presidency will not be able to “continue in office for one more day.”

As indicated by the Foundation for Studies for the Application of Law (Fespad) of El Salvador, the resolution of the Constitutional Chamber “lacks constitutional legitimacy”, since it occurred “despite the fact that presidential re-election is expressly prohibited by the Constitution”.

Lawyer Rafael Garciaguirre explained to journalists that, in accordance with Article 77-A of the Constitutional Procedures Law, “every court in El Salvador is competent to declare the inapplicability of any provision or rule that violates the Magna Carta.”

“We are presenting ourselves to the (Electoral) Tribunal, hoping that it complies with what the Constitution, the Constitutional Procedures Law and other legal bodies mandates, and declares the resolution of the Constitutional Chamber inapplicable.”

In September 2021, the magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) issued a ruling in which a change of criteria regarding immediate re-election is set out, which enables President Nayib Bukele to seek a second term.

As indicated by the Foundation for Studies for the Application of Law (Fespad) of El Salvador, the resolution of the Constitutional Chamber “lacks constitutional legitimacy”, since it occurred “despite the fact that presidential re-election is expressly prohibited by the Constitution”. (PHOTO: REUTERS)

The judges, chosen by Bukele’s allies in Congress in a widely criticized process, pointed out that the prohibition of immediate re-election is for a ruler who has been in power for 10 years, while in previous rulings a president had to finish his 5-year term and wait 10 to seek the Presidency again.

Francisco Rovira, secretary of the National Opposition Union (UNO, center-right movement) and who accompanied the lawyers, assured that with the petition “we are not playing a role of disrespect for the president, we are not making any mockery, we are simply applying the defense of the Constitution.”

Bukele announced his intention to seek reelection in September 2022, making him the first president of the Salvadoran democratic stage with the option of seeking immediate reelection.

The resolution states that to seek a new term, the president must request a license “six months before the start of the presidential term.” In other words, Bukele would only govern the first six months of his fifth year and should step down from the Presidency in January 2024.

The head of the parliamentary bench of the ruling party Nuevas Ideas, Christian Guevara, revealed the intentions of the president, who will designate an acting president until the time of the elections, as he declared in an interview with the Peruvian radio station RPP.

The judges, chosen by Bukele’s allies in Congress in a widely criticized process, noted that the ban on immediate re-election is for a ruler who has been in power for 10 years. (Reuters)

“He is going to resign in December, he is going to designate a presidential appointee, redundancy is worth it, and this person is going to finish his six months in office that remain of the five that the electoral period establishes and, as I repeat, if the Salvadorans choose him, he will continue, and if not, his mandate ended here,” Guevara explained.

Bukele came to power in 2019 with the far-right party Gran Alianza por la Unidad Nacional (Gana) as the electoral vehicle after the registration delay of his party Nueva Ideas (NI).

In recent months, the Salvadoran president has promoted a “war against gangs” in which he has imprisoned more than 60,000 suspected gang members.

(With information from EFE and Europa Press)

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