Overview
- Nuevas Ideas proclaimed Nayib Bukele as its presidential candidate after party primaries reported Monday, with the party posting him as the sole contender and naming Vice President Félix Ulloa as his running mate.
- The nomination rests on a July 2025 congressional reform that removed consecutive-term limits, lengthened the presidential term to six years and eliminated the runoff, a change critics say opened the way for this third bid.
- Bukele must formally register his candidacy with the Tribunal Supremo Electoral between October 1 and November 19, 2026, under the electoral calendar for the February 2027 vote.
- The president’s popularity is tied to a hard-line security strategy and a state of exception launched in 2022 that officials say has led to more than 92,000 detentions and the dismantling of gang leaderships.
- Domestic opponents and international rights groups allege the security measures and institutional changes have produced rights violations and concentrated power, and recent investigative reports have flagged large increases in declared wealth among Bukele and close associates.