Crazy head of state asks for permission

El Salvador's Congress has approved President Nayib Bukele to take a leave of absence to run for re-election, despite constitutional disputes in the country.

The Congress voted to allow Bukele, nominated for a second 5-year term by the New Ideas Party led by the President, to take a 6-month leave of absence to run his election campaign. While 67 members of Congress voted in favor of this, 12 opposed it.

In this case, in addition to Bukele, the Congress approved that current Vice President Felix Ulloa should also take a leave of absence so that he can participate in the campaign, and also approved that the President's private secretary Claudia Juana Rodriguez de Guevara take over the President's duties until May 30.

The New Ideas Party had ignored the objections of legal experts and the opposition that the President's re-nomination was unconstitutional and nominated Bukele as a candidate in the general elections scheduled for February 4, 2024.

Some legal experts had objected to the candidacy of Bukele, who announced in September that he would run for a second 5-year term, on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.

El Salvador, one of the countries with the highest murder rate in the world, has serious security problems due to the power of gangs in the country. In order to reduce crime rates in the country, a state of emergency (State of Emergency) was declared for one month on March 27, 2022, and then this decision was renewed every month. Bukele has been criticized for suspending fundamental rights for more than a year after the state of emergency.