Abu Kaila announced his intention to run for a second presidential term last September. “Re-election, re-election, re-election,” his supporters chanted.
During his address to members of Congress marking his fourth year in office. El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who took office in 2019, has committed to ending murder rates in his country, which has one of the highest rates in the world, and has vowed to jail tens of thousands of suspected gang members.
Abu Kaila said, “Today we declare war on corruption.” which he viewed as a gang-like “endemic” evil. He added, “Just as we fought gangs with all the legal means at our disposal, we will also start a direct war against corruption.
Abu Kaila promised that a “prison” would also be built for “white-collar criminals” just as he had built a huge prison for gang members.
Abu Kaila built a massive prison that would hold 40,000 prisoners, “the largest prison in America,” with a strict confinement regime that human rights organizations denounce.
Abu Kaileh also proposed reducing the number of municipalities in the country from 262 to 44 to reduce tax burdens. This proposal requires the approval of the Legislative Council as Abu Kaila’s party and its allies have a majority. The president also proposed reducing the number of deputies in this body from 84 to 60. Abu Kaila’s party, the Movement for New Ideas, controls the majority of the current municipalities.
The Salvadoran president emphasized that “local identities” would not be lost when reducing the number of municipalities, but rather would be transformed into provinces with the same name.
The conservative National Republican Alliance Party (Arena) considered that it saw a clear electoral motive behind this move, just a year before Abu Kaila plans to run for a second presidential term, despite the broad interpretation of the country’s constitution, which prohibits re-election of a person for two consecutive presidential terms.
In 2021, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, recently reformed by Bukele’s party, asked the electoral authorities to allow a run for a second term. Law experts considered the court’s decision unconstitutional.
Abu Kaila announced his intention to run for a second presidential term last September. “Re-election, re-election, re-election,” his supporters chanted.
