Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who supports Bitcoin, launches re-election campaign.

Pro-Bitcoin Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele Launches Re-Election Campaign

Author: Brayden Lindrea, Cointelegraph; Translation: Song Xue, LianGuai

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has submitted the documents to run for re-election in the country’s upcoming 2024 presidential elections.

Bitcoin advocate Bukele, who was officially nominated by his political party on October 26th, has received strong support from the public.

“Five more years, five more years, no stepping back,” Bukele said in a speech in front of thousands of Salvadorans. “We need five more years to continue improving our country,” he added.

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Bukele came to power in 2019, when his party, New Ideas, broke the thirty-year two-party rule between the Nationalist Republican Alliance and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMNLB).

However, despite Bukele’s popularity among the local population, critics like Salvadoran lawyer Alfonso Fajardo argue that the country’s constitution prohibits Bukele from running for a second term.

He stated on October 26th, “Today is a memorable day, according to the constitution, immediate presidential re-election has been prohibited seven times.”

Despite the 7 articles in the constitution that prohibit this, Nayib Bukele is still running for re-election in El Salvador. The constitution was drafted after our peace agreements, the bloody civil war. This is unconstitutional. https://t.co/ordgib7WMq

— Daniel Alvaranga (@puchicadanny) October 27, 2023

However, in September 2021, the Supreme Court of El Salvador ruled that the president can be re-elected.

According to a study cited by Reuters from a university in El Salvador, New Ideas received support from 70% of the country’s voters. Its closest competitor only received 4% of the total votes.

One of New Ideas’ competitors, FMNLB, filed a lawsuit in June 2021, claiming that Bukele’s adoption plan for Bitcoin is unconstitutional. However, with Bukele and El Salvador officially designating Bitcoin as legal tender three months later in September 2021, the complaint had no basis.

The Bukele government has also implemented other technology-friendly policies aimed at strengthening the national economy, such as removing all taxes on technological innovation.

VanEck strategic advisor Gabor Gurbacs recently stated that El Salvador has the potential to become the “Singapore of the Americas”.

Bukele’s popularity largely stems from his harsh crackdown on MS-13, the transnational criminal gang that had previously led El Salvador to have the highest murder rate in the world six years ago.

The result of this crackdown is that El Salvador’s murder rate has dropped from its peak of 106 per 100,000 residents in 2015 to 7.8 people in 2022, a shocking decrease of 92.6%. The country is now one of the lowest crime rates in Latin America.

However, the United Nations and other critics argue that El Salvador has imprisoned 65,000 people without giving them the legal right to self-defense, violating human rights laws.

The presidential elections in El Salvador will be held on February 4, 2024.

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