El Salvador ends presidential term limits and moves to six year terms

El Salvador has made one of the largest changes to its constitution in decades. On Thursday, July 31, 2025, the Legislative Assembly, dominated by President Nayib Bukele's Nuevas Ideas party and its allies, approved a reform allowing a president to be reelected without limit. The vote was 57 of the 60 deputies in favour and 3 against.

The reform was approved in the regular weekly session, published in the Diario Oficial, the official gazette, and then ratified in a second session the same night by the same 57 votes. It was passed with a waiver of the usual procedure, without study in committee.

What changes

The reform amends articles 75, 80, 133, 152 and 154 of the constitution. In summary:

• Indefinite reelection. The ban on a president standing again after serving the previous term is removed, so a sitting president can run for consecutive terms without limit.
• Six year terms. The presidential term is extended from five years to six.
• No runoff. The second round between the top two candidates is abolished. The candidate with the most votes wins.
• No penalty for promoting reelection. The constitution used to strip citizenship rights from anyone who promoted presidential reelection. That provision is gone.
• An earlier election. A transitional provision shortens the current presidential term so that it ends in 2027 instead of 2029, aligning the presidential vote with the legislative and municipal elections due that year.

The government framed the reform as a matter of consistency and timing. Its sponsors noted that legislators and mayors could already be reelected without limit, and the decree describes synchronising the electoral calendar as urgent and unavoidable. Assembly president Ernesto Castro said that if voters dislike the change, they can replace the Assembly at the ballot box.

The opposition saw it differently. Marcela Villatoro of ARENA, one of the three votes against, said lawmakers had killed the constitution, and Claudia Ortiz of the VAMOS party argued the reform was about keeping the ruling party in power rather than returning power to the people.

How El Salvador got here

The constitution has long barred consecutive presidential terms. In 2021, after the Assembly replaced the judges of the Supreme Court's Constitutional Chamber, the new chamber ruled that a sitting president could stand again. President Bukele was reelected on that basis and began his second term in June 2024. In February 2024 he had said he did not think a constitutional reform was necessary. The new changes write the possibility of continued reelection directly into the constitution.

Stability, policy and investors

For investors and new residents, the reform cuts both ways, and it is worth being clear about each side.

On continuity, the change makes it more likely that the current direction of government continues beyond 2027. That direction includes the security policy widely credited with a dramatic fall in gang violence, the program agreed with the International Monetary Fund in February 2025, which commits El Salvador to fiscal consolidation, and the openness to foreign capital and new residents that produced the Freedom Visa. Investors who value predictability may see that as a positive.

On governance, the reform concentrates power further in a system where the ruling party already controls the Assembly, and where the judges of the constitutional chamber were appointed by that Assembly in 2021. Fewer checks mean policy can change quickly, including in ways investors do not expect, and the reform was itself passed in hours with no committee study. Rating agencies, lenders and some foreign governments watch these institutional questions closely.

What does not change is the legal framework for property, companies and residence, or the country's use of the US dollar as its official currency.

What it means if you are considering El Salvador citizenship

The Freedom Visa grants citizenship for a US$1 million contribution in bitcoin or USDT, a dollar backed digital token, and is limited to 1,000 people a year. It is closely associated with the current government, so a longer horizon for that government makes sudden reversal of the program less likely in the near term. At the same time, a citizenship is held for life, well beyond any single administration, and a program that depends heavily on one political project carries that project's risks. Our view is that El Salvador can make sense as one passport within a broader plan, alongside residencies or citizenships elsewhere, rather than as the only one. We help clients assess and apply for the program, work with our local team, and quote our fixed fee in writing.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice.