Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in El Salvador on 28 February 2027, three years after the 2024 presidential election. They will occur with concurrent legislative and municipal elections. In July 2025, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador voted to move the date of the next presidential election from 2029 to 2027. It also approved several constitutional amendments, among them, the abolition of presidential term limits and the increase of presidential term lengths from five to six years.

Eleven political parties are eligible to participate in the election, of which, nine convoked primary elections and four nominated candidates. Incumbent president Nayib Bukele of Nuevas Ideas is running for re-election to a third presidential term. The opposition's presidential candidates are the Nationalist Republican Alliance's Mayteé Iraheta and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front's Rafael Aguirre. The National Coalition Party, which is part of a Nuevas Ideas's governing coalition in the Legislative Assembly, nominated retired general Alirio García Flamenco as its presidential candidate. The Salvadoran Patriotic Fraternity nominated expatriate Orlando del Cid. The remaining parties did not nominate a presidential candidate. Among them, Vamos announced that it will not participate in the election, arguing that it does not seek to legitimize an election that it views as unconstitutional.

Political background

Presidency of Nayib Bukele

Nayib Bukele became President of El Salvador on 1 June 2019 after winning that year's presidential election. Nuevas Ideas, Bukele's political party, won the 2021 legislative election in a landslide and used its supermajority in the Legislative Assembly to replace the five magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice's Constitutional Court. In 2022, Bukele initiated a nationwide gang crackdown that , had resulted in over 84,200 arrests and has been accused of human rights violations and secret negotiations with gangs. As a part of the crackdown, he opened the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a prison with a capacity of 40,000 inmates. Bukele has been described by journalists as an authoritarian and an autocrat, yet also holds approval ratings ranging in the 80s and 90s.

Under Bukele, El Salvador has experienced democratic backsliding. In 2021, the Supreme Court of Justice ruled that the incumbent president was eligible to run for re-election immediately, overturning a 2014 ruling that held that immediate re-election was unconstitutional. The following year, Bukele announced his intention to run for re-election in the 2024 presidential election. Opposition politicians criticized the ruling and Bukele's seeking re-election as unconstitutional. Bukele won re-election with almost 85 percent of the vote in a landslide victory and his second term began on 1 June 2024. Nuevas Ideas won 54 of the Legislative Assembly's 60 seats in concurrent legislative elections.

Presidential re-election

On 31 July 2025, the Legislative Assembly voted to approve several amendments to the constitution of El Salvador. Among them were the abolition of presidential term limits and the increase of presidential term lengths from 5 to 6 years. The Legislative Assembly also voted to abolish the two-round system in favor of first-past-the-post and moved the date of the next presidential election from 2029 to 2027, bringing the presidential election cycle in line with the three-year legislative and municipal election cycle. The latter reform will end Bukele's second term on 1 June 2027, two years ahead of the original date of 1 June 2029. Another amendment enabled the sitting president to seek re-election without needing to take a leave of absence six months before the next presidential term begins. In total, five articles of the constitution were amended or eliminated.

The vote was split along partisan lines: Bukele's 57 allies voted in favor of the constitutional reforms and the 3 members of the opposition voted against them. Ana Figueroa, who proposed the reforms, argued that term limits historically were allowed for most elected offices without restrictions with the only exception being the presidency and that Salvadorans have a right to determine how long elected officials should remain in office. Suecy Callejas, the vice president of the Legislative Assembly, stated that "power has returned to the only place that it truly belongs [...] to the Salvadoran people". Marcela Villatoro, a deputy of the opposition Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), remarked that "today, democracy has died in El Salvador". Claudia Ortiz, a deputy of Vamos, described the reforms as "an abuse of power and a caricature of democracy". Carlos García Saade and Manuel Flores, the leaders of ARENA and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), respectively, both criticized the reforms. Meanwhile, Xavier Zablah Bukele, the leader of Nuevas Ideas, supported Bukele remaining in office for a third term. Juanita Goebertus, the director of Human Rights Watch's Americas division, warned that El Salvador "is following the same path as Venezuela" (""). At the time of the reforms, Nicaragua and Venezuela were the only other Latin American countries to allow indefinite re-election.

On 2 August, Bukele posted on X accusing critics of holding a "double standard" and arguing that indefinite re-election should be allowed in El Salvador as it is allowed for the heads of government of "90% of developed countries". The United States Department of State backed the constitutional reforms, remarking in a statement that "it is up to them to decide how their country should be governed". Ortiz filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court of Justice on 8 August to declare the constitutional amendments that increased presidential term lengths and abolished term limits to be unconstitutional. Villatoro criticized the lawsuit, arguing that it "would ultimately endorse" ("") the reforms as the same Supreme Court justices enabled Bukele's first re-election.

In February 2026, Vice President Félix Ulloa defended indefinite re-election, arguing that it allowed people to "make decisions freely, directly, democratically, and securely" (""). Ulloa further claimed that the Legislative Assembly removed constitutional term limits due to Bukele's landslide victory in 2024. According to an opinion poll conducted by the Central American University in May 2026, 65.3 percent of Salvadorans supported moving the presidential election from 2029 to 2027 while 23.9 percent opposed moving the election.

Electoral system

Election procedure

A presidential election was initially scheduled to be held in 2029, five years after the 2024 presidential election, but the Legislative Assembly voted in 2025 to reschedule the election for 2027. The election is scheduled to occur on 28 February 2027 with concurrent legislative and municipal elections. Salvadorans outside of the country will be able to vote online from 30 January to 28 February. , there are 6,550,487 registered voters, of which, 5,451,501 reside in the country and 1,098,986 live abroad. Salvadorans have until 29 November 2026 to be registered to vote.

Salvadorans will elect a president and a vice president on a joint-ticket. All candidates must be Salvadoran citizens by birth and at least 30 years old. Presidential and vice presidential candidates must be affiliated with political parties registered with the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) in order to participate in the election. To win, a candidate needs a plurality. FMLN election analysis director Irving Sorto questioned if the election's conduct would be free and fair due to the continued implementation of the state of exception during the gang crackdown. On 2 December 2025, the Legislative Assembly approved a US$172.1 million budget for the 2027 election.

On 15 August, the TSE announced that it will have 92 voting centers outside of El Salvador for expatriates to vote, an increase from 81 in 2024. Of the 92, 53 will be in the United States. Additionally, there will be 4 in Canada and Mexico each, 3 in Italy and Spain each, 2 in Australia, and 1 in 23 other countries each.

Political parties

Political parties must be registered with the TSE in order to participate in the 2027 presidential elections. , eleven political parties are eligible to participate in the election. New political parties had until 4 April to petition the TSE for registration and had until 31 August to be fully registered. The following table shows the eleven political parties that are eligible to register candidates with the TSE and whether or not they plan to register presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Party Leader Will Participate? PDC Christian Democratic Party Reinaldo Carballo FMLN Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front Manuel Flores GANA Grand Alliance for National Unity Nelson Guardado V Let's Go Cesia Rivas PCN National Coalition Party Manuel Rodríguez ARENA Nationalist Republican Alliance Carlos García Saade NI New Ideas Xavier Zablah Bukele DS Salvadoran Democracy Ezequiel Mendoza Fermán PAIS Salvadoran Independent Party Roy García FPS Salvadoran Patriotic Fraternity Óscar Morales Lemus FS Solidary Force Rigoberto Soto

Candidates

Nominated candidates

Party Candidate Running mate Date nominated Date registered Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front Rafael Aguirre Madaí Santos 26 July 2026 Nuevas Ideas Nayib Bukele Félix Ulloa 12 July 2026 Salvadoran Patriotic Fraternity Orlando del Cid Josué Bryan Muñoz 10 August 2026 National Coalition Party Alirio García Flamenco 29 July 2026 Nationalist Republican Alliance Mayteé Iraheta Verónica Henríquez 26 July 2026

Declined to be candidates

The following individuals have declined to run as a presidential candidate.

Manuel Flores (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front): Mayor of Quezaltepeque (2003–2012), Deputy of the Legislative Assembly (2012–2021), Secretary-General of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (2024–present), 2024 FMLN presidential candidate Guillermo Gallegos (Grand Alliance for National Unity): Deputy of the Legislative Assembly (2000–2024), President of the Legislative Assembly (2016–2018), Vice President of the Grand Alliance for National Unity (2010–present) Claudia Ortiz (Vamos): Deputy of the Legislative Assembly (2021–present) Marcela Villatoro (Nationalist Republican Alliance): Deputy of the Legislative Assembly (2018–present)

The following individuals expressed interest in running or a political party considered nominating them as a presidential candidate but ultimately did not run.

Gerardo Awad (Salvadoran Independent Party): businessman, 2019 ARENA presidential pre-candidate, 2024 PAIS presidential pre-candidate Miguel Fortín (proposed by Cambio Total): contributor for La Prensa Gráfica Mario Vega (proposed by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front): leader of the Elim International Christian Mission Idalia Zúniga (proposed by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front): teacher

Election campaign

Political parties had until 7 April 2026 to convoke their presidential and vice presidential primary elections and had until 29 July to hold them. The parties will have from 1 October to 19 November to register their presidential and vice presidential candidates with the TSE. Citizen Action, a non-governmental organization, will monitor the primary elections. Days after the deadline to convoke primary elections, Citizen Action reported that no political party published its full list of requirements for candidates to participate in their primaries. The official campaigning period sanctioned by the TSE will span from 27 October 2026 to 24 February 2027.

Nuevas Ideas