Nearly 70 percent of respondents favor Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s bid for a second term, a local newspaper poll showed on Tuesday, despite an explicit constitutional prohibition against serving consecutive terms.
In September last year, Bukele announced that he would run for re-election, defying the Central American country’s constitution’s longstanding ban.
The Salvadoran Supreme Court in 2021 ruled that a consecutive term was allowed, citing Bukele’s human right to run.
Photo: Reuters
The move was criticized by rights groups as well as the US, which labeled it part of the decline in El Salvador’s democratic norms.
Bukele has defended the decision, saying that “developed countries have re-election.”
“Salvadorans remain divided on whether the constitution allows immediate re-election,” newspaper La Prensa Grafica said about the poll. “There are citizens who are convinced the constitution does not allow it, but they will still vote for Nayib Bukele.”
The poll, conducted last month, showed that 68 percent of the 1,500 respondents supported Bukele’s re-election, with 13 percent against.
The remaining 19 percent expressed no opinion or indifference.
Bukele is one of Latin America’s most popular leaders in part due to his year-long crackdown on violent gangs, which has imprisoned more than 65,000 people while suspending some constitutional and due process rights.
The policy has been criticized by human rights groups, who claim that innocent people have been caught up in the dragnet, in addition to allowing authorities to temporarily lock up suspects without any right to present a defense.
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