El Salvador scraps presidential term limits, opening door for another Bukele term
Representatives take part in a session of the Salvadoran congress to discuss reforms to the constitution, in San Salvador, El Salvador July 31, 2025. REUTERS/ Jose Cabezas
SAN SALVADOR - El Salvador's ruling party on Thursday passed a bill to overhaul how elections are run in the Central American nation, opening the door for President Nayib Bukele to serve another term.
Bukele won a second term last year despite a clear prohibition in the country's constitution. El Salvador's top court, filled with Bukele-backed judges, ruled in 2021 that it was the leader's human right to run again.
The constitutional amendment passed on Thursday by Bukele's New Ideas party, which dominates Congress, will allow indefinite presidential re-election, extend terms from five years to six and scrap run-offs.
After his re-election last year, Bukele told reporters he "didn't think a constitutional reform would be necessary," but evaded questions on whether he would try to run for a third term.
The bill passed 57-3 as Congress prepares to break for recess.
The overhaul will also shorten the president's current term to synchronize elections in 2027, as presidential, legislative and municipal elections are currently staggered.
Consolidating the voting schedule would likely favor the ruling party across the board.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
World Trump modifies reciprocal tariffs ahead of deadline; rate on Singapore likely to remain at 10%
Singapore 'For one last time, let's go home': Tears, laughs as last scheduled Jetstar Asia flight touches down
Singapore Over half of job applications by retrenched Jetstar Asia staff led to offers or interviews: CEO
Singapore No entry: ICA to bar high-risk, undesirable travellers from boarding S'pore-bound ships, flights
Business More new homes are coming up in northern Singapore
Business OCBC Q2 profit drops 7% to $1.82b as interest rates fall, to pay lower interim dividend
Asia Thailand seeks neutral venue for border talks with Cambodia
Singapore 'Switching careers just as I became a dad was risky, but I had to do it for my family'
"This is quite simple, El Salvador: only you will have the power to decide how long you wish to support the work of any public official, including your president," said lawmaker Ana Figueroa, a New Ideas member who proposed the bill for the constitutional changes. "You have the power to decide how long you support your president and all elected officials."
The few non-ruling party lawmakers in Congress opposed the proposal over concerns it will entrench one-party rule in the country.
"Today, democracy has died in El Salvador," said legislator Marcela Villatoro of the opposition Republican National Alliance (ARENA).
Bukele remains one of the most popular leaders in the region, largely due to his across-the-board crackdown on gangs that has caused homicides to plummet, despite an outcry from human rights groups, which say innocent people have been caught up in the dragnet.
"The day before vacation, without debate, without informing the public, in a single legislative vote, they changed the political system to allow the president to perpetuate himself in power indefinitely and we continue to follow the well-traveled path of autocrats," said Noah Bullock, executive director of rights group Cristosal.
The group recently left El Salvador, declaring itself in exile due to Bukele's drive to consolidate his grip on power and crack down on critics and humanitarian organizations. REUTERS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Aug 3, 2025
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Palestinians returning from an aid distribution point run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, on Aug 2. Hamas demands independent Palestinian state Hamas said on Aug 2 that it would not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established - a fresh rebuke to a key Israeli demand to end the war in Gaza. Indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel aimed at securing a 60-day ceasefire in the Gaza war and deal for the release of hostages ended last week in deadlock. On July 29, Qatar and Egypt, who are mediating ceasefire efforts, endorsed a declaration by France and Saudi Arabia outlining steps towards a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and saying that as part of this Hamas must hand over its arms to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. In its statement, Hamas - which has dominated Gaza since 2007 but has been militarily battered by Israel in the war - said it could not yield its right to 'armed resistance' unless an 'independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital' is established. READ MORE HERE US envoy Steve Witkoff meets Israeli hostage families US envoy Steve Witkoff met anguished relatives of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza on Aug 2, as fears for the captives' survival mounted almost 22 months into the war sparked by Hamas' October 2023 attack. Mr Witkoff was greeted with some applause and pleas for assistance from hundreds of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv, before going into a closed meeting with the families. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore $3b money laundering case: MinLaw names 6 law firms taken to task over involvement in property deals Singapore Police reopen access to all areas in Marina Bay after crowd congestion eases at NDP Preview area Singapore Opening of Woodlands Health has eased load on KTPH, sets standard for future hospitals: Ong Ye Kung Asia KTM plans new passenger rail service in Johor Bahru to manage higher footfall expected from RTS Singapore HSA investigating teen allegedly vaping on MRT train Asia 4 workers dead after falling into manhole in Japan Singapore New vehicular bridge connecting Punggol Central and Seletar Link to open on Aug 3 Singapore New S'pore jobs portal launched for North West District residents looking for work near home The Hostages and Missing Families Forum confirmed the meeting was under way and videos shared online showed Mr Witkoff arriving as families chanted 'Bring them home!' and 'We need your help.' READ MORE HERE Pope tells young Catholics to build a better world PHOTO: EPA Hundreds of thousands of young people filled a vast field on the outskirts of Rome on Aug 2 to see Pope Leo, in the largest event yet of the new Catholic pontiff's tenure, as part of a special weekend aimed at energising Catholic youth. Young people from more than 146 countries, some wearing colourful bandanas to ward off the hot summer sun, were pressed against fences in the Tor Vergata field as Leo toured the crowd in his white popemobile in late afternoon. The pope, smiling broadly, waved, offered blessings and occasionally caught small stuffed animals and national flags thrown by the youth as he passed by. READ MORE HERE Katie Ledecky claims seventh straight 800m free gold ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG Experience proved to be the winning formula at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH) on Aug 2, as American legend Katie Ledecky emerged victorious in the most anticipated race of the meet – the showdown between the veteran and Canadian teenage sensation Summer McIntosh in the 800m freestyle. Ledecky triumphed for a seventh time in a championship record of 8min 5.62sec at the WCH Arena, touching home ahead of Australia's Lani Pallister – who set an Oceania record in 8:05.98 – and McIntosh, who clocked 8:07.29. The 28-year-old said: 'That's pretty incredible, three of us going under 8:10... incredibly fast. They pushed me all the way. I'm just really happy I could put that together. I just told myself to trust my legs, because I've gotten a bit better at kicking. Just running home at the end. READ MORE HERE 'Useless' Hamilton says Ferrari should replace him PHOTO: EPA A despondent Lewis Hamilton said he was 'useless' and suggested Ferrari needed another driver after qualifying 12th for the Hungarian Grand Prix with teammate Charles Leclerc on pole position. The seven-time Formula One world champion, who is 40 and the second oldest driver on the grid, has an unrivalled record in Hungary with eight wins and nine poles but his Aug 2 performance was far from those heights. 'It's me every time. I'm useless, absolutely useless,' he told Sky Sports television, when explaining why he had said 'every time, every time' over the radio after failing to make the cut by 15 thousandths of a second.
Straits Times
3 hours ago
- Straits Times
LTA, Singapore bus operators reviewing Malaysia's request to start services from JB at 4am
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Commuters queue to board the Causeway Link bus to Johor Bahru on April 9. SINGAPORE – The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and Singapore bus operators are reviewing a request from Malaysia to start operating cross-border bus services from Johor Bahru an hour earlier. LTA told The Straits Times on July 29 that it had received a request from Malaysia's Land Public Transport Agency on June 17 to start operating cross-border bus services earlier and that it is 'working with our bus operators to review the request'. These operators are public bus companies SBS Transit (SBST) and SMRT and some private bus operators. Malaysian news daily The Star said on July 24 that the Land Public Transport Agency is in talks with LTA to ask Singapore's bus operators to start services at 4am, instead of 5am. According to The Star, Johor state Works, Transportation, Infrastructure and Communication Committee chairman Mohamad Fazli Mohamad Salleh said long queues of Singapore-bound passengers would form at the Johor Bahru Checkpoint at 4am, so he hopes that an earlier start time would tackle the pre-dawn rush. SBST currently operates service 160 from Johor Bahru Checkpoint, with departures starting at 5am on weekdays and 5.50am on weekends or public holidays. It also runs service 170 between Larkin Terminal in Johor Bahru and Queen Street Terminal near Jalan Besar, with departures starting from 5.20am on weekdays and 5.30am on weekends or public holidays. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore $3b money laundering case: MinLaw names 6 law firms taken to task over involvement in property deals Singapore Police reopen access to all areas in Marina Bay after crowd congestion eases at NDP Preview area Singapore Opening of Woodlands Health has eased load on KTPH, sets standard for future hospitals: Ong Ye Kung Asia KTM plans new passenger rail service in Johor Bahru to manage higher footfall expected from RTS Singapore HSA investigating teen allegedly vaping on MRT train Asia 4 workers dead after falling into manhole in Japan Singapore New vehicular bridge connecting Punggol Central and Seletar Link to open on Aug 3 Singapore New S'pore jobs portal launched for North West District residents looking for work near home Service 170X – a supplementary service that plies only a section of service 170's route – is also run by SBST, with the first bus leaving Johor Bahru at 8.28am on weekdays. Additionally, SMRT operates service 950 across the Causeway from Johor Bahru Checkpoint towards the Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange. No information on the starting times for its Singapore-bound service is publicly available, but the Johor Bahru-bound service departs from Woodlands at 5.30am every day. Other private bus operators, including Singapore-Johore Express, Ridewell Travel and Transtar Travel, ply routes from Larkin Bus Terminal and Johor Bahru Checkpoint to Singapore. ST has contacted all public and private bus operators for comment. SMRT and SBST directed these queries to LTA. Associate Professor Walter Theseira, a transport economist at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, said it may be more costly and logistically challenging to operate cross-border bus services outside the usual scheduled hours. This is because public bus operators face labour constraints, he added. It would be more difficult to offer services at earlier start times as drivers may not want to accept these shifts, and it would affect manpower planning for the rest of the day. And these operational constraints may lead to higher fares, noted Prof Theseira, since buses operating outside scheduled hours are typically expected to cover a larger share of costs from fares – as in the case of the now-defunct late-night bus services, which charged higher fares of above $4. He noted that there may also be concerns from Singaporeans about providing more subsidies so that public transport operators can start their cross-border services earlier because they would primarily benefit Malaysians working in Singapore. While private operators can also adjust the operating hours of such services, he said they must be able to make profits to offer extended services. Malaysians who cross the Causeway daily to get to work in Singapore, such as Mr Eerman Dzulkurnai, 39, said he would be happy to have potentially more cross-border bus services to use as he typically gets to Johor Bahru Checkpoint by around 4am to avoid getting stuck in traffic and be able to arrive at his workplace in Pioneer by 9am. The information technology support officer noted that by 6am, there are usually snaking queues, and it can take travellers one hour to squeeze onto a bus to Singapore. He added that early on the morning of July 21, when bus drivers under Malaysian bus operator Causeway Link went on strike, he was left with no choice but to walk 30 minutes across the Causeway.
Straits Times
3 hours ago
- Straits Times
Ong Beng Seng to plead guilty on Aug 4, more than 2 years after trip to Qatar with Iswaran
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Billionaire Ong Beng Seng was charged on Oct 4, 2024, with allegedly abetting a public servant in obtaining gifts and abetting the obstruction of justice. SINGAPORE – It was discovered by chance in May 2023, as the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) was probing a separate matter. Investigators found the manifest of a private plane while looking into associates of property tycoon Ong Beng Seng, who owned the aircraft. One name stood out in particular – Mr S. Iswaran's. He was a close friend of Ong's, with the pair going back about two decades. The two men had travelled together on Dec 10, 2022, after the then Transport Minister accepted the billionaire's invitation for an all-expenses-paid trip to Qatar. They flew there on the private plane, with Mr Iswaran returning the next day on a business-class flight. The trip sparked a separate investigation by CPIB, which eventually led to the conviction on Oct 3, 2024, of a former Cabinet minister, a first in Singapore. After several hearing adjournments, and more than two years after the discovery of the flight manifest, Ong is finally slated to plead guilty on Aug 4 to abetment of obstruction of justice, a charge related to the trip. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore $3b money laundering case: MinLaw names 6 law firms taken to task over involvement in property deals Singapore Police reopen access to all areas in Marina Bay after crowd congestion eases at NDP Preview area Singapore Opening of Woodlands Health has eased load on KTPH, sets standard for future hospitals: Ong Ye Kung Asia KTM plans new passenger rail service in Johor Bahru to manage higher footfall expected from RTS Singapore HSA investigating teen allegedly vaping on MRT train Asia 4 workers dead after falling into manhole in Japan Singapore New vehicular bridge connecting Punggol Central and Seletar Link to open on Aug 3 Singapore New S'pore jobs portal launched for North West District residents looking for work near home The 79-year-old businessman had earlier indicated that he will consent to having a second charge – of abetting a public servant in obtaining gifts – taken into consideration for sentencing. Prosecutors will claim that it was Ong who allegedly alerted Mr Iswaran to the fact that CPIB had seized the flight manifest. It was this alert which led to Mr Iswaran, 63, requesting a bill for the $5,700 business-class flight from Doha to Singapore on Dec 11, 2022. At Mr Iswaran's sentencing, prosecutors pointed out that the bill was sent out only around May 25, 2023, more than five months after the trip. More than friends Ong, a Singapore permanent resident who was born in Teluk Intan, Malaysia, had amassed his wealth through ventures in the hospitality, property and retail sectors. His wife – Ms Christina Fu – is a prominent businesswoman. Ong set up Hotel Properties Limited (HPL) in 1980 and went on to acquire a number of hotels around the world, and properties in prime locations such as Orchard Road. He was also the majority shareholder of Singapore GP, and the man who brought Formula One (F1) to Singapore in 2008 – the first night race in the sport's history. In 2022, he was involved in a contract between Singapore GP and the Singapore Tourism Board, a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Mr Iswaran was then chairman of the F1 steering committee. In December 2022, Ong had allegedly extended an invitation by the chairman of the Qatar World Cup organising committee to Mr Iswaran. The tycoon is said to have told his friend that he would go on the trip as his guest. He said he would take care of all expenses, including hotel accommodation. Mr Iswaran then applied for urgent leave and flew to Doha on the hotelier's private jet. He stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel, with Ong allegedly picking up the tab. Mr Iswaran did not pay for his flight to Doha or the hotel stay, and did not declare them to the Government. In sentencing Mr Iswaran, Justice Vincent Hoong described Ong as cultivating goodwill when offering gifts to and acceding to requests from Mr Iswaran for various items, including tickets for football matches. Ong and Mr Iswaran were arrested on the same day on July 11, 2023. The former Cabinet minister eventually was handed a jail term of 12 months after he pleaded guilty to five charges , including four for obtaining valuable items as a public servant, an offence under Section 165 of the Penal Code. The offence penalises public servants who obtain or accept gifts, or attempt to do so, from an individual with whom the public servant has official dealings without necessarily giving or doing anything in return. Mr Iswaran, who admitted to obtaining items worth more than $400,000 from Ong and Mr David Lum, managing director of construction company Lum Chang Holdings, became the first person to be convicted of the offence since Singapore's independence. Ong was first supposed to plead guilty on April 2 this year , but this was postponed after his lawyers asked for an extension to obtain his medical report. The businessman has multiple myeloma, which is a type of blood cancer affecting the bone marrow predominantly and is characterised by excessive multiplication of a type of white blood cells called plasma cells. During earlier proceedings, he was allowed by the court to go abroad for medical and work purposes. This included permission to travel to the US, Britain and Italy from April 28 to May 16. On April 14 in an exchange filing, HPL said that Ong will step down as its managing director at the close of the company's annual general meeting on April 29, with the tycoon indicating he wanted to devote more time to managing his medical conditions. A court date was then set for him to plead guilty on July 3, but this was rescheduled one day before the hearing as the prosecution and defence needed more time to file further submissions on sentencing. Ong is expected to be represented on Aug 4 by a team of lawyers including Senior Counsel Cavinder Bull, the chief executive officer of Drew & Napier. The case will be heard by Principal District Judge Lee Lit Cheng. If convicted of obstruction of justice, Ong can be jailed for up to seven years, fined or both.
