The Parliament of El Salvador approved this Monday (04/29/2024) to change an article of the Constitution that would allow expeditious reforms to the Magna Carta, in force since 1983, in the legislature that takes office on May 1 and that maintains the vast majority of the party New Ideas (NI), by President Nayib Bukele.
The initiative, which was presented to Parliament by NI deputies less than two days before this legislature ends its mandate, must be ratified by the next Congress for it to come into force. The change was approved without prior study or analysis by 66 votes from the ruling party and 16 votes against from the opposition.
Changes to article 248
The original wording of the second paragraph of article 248 establishes that the only way to modify the Constitution is through approval in a legislature with a simple majority and its ratification with the vote of two-thirds of the parties, that is, 56 congressmen. The approved amendment adds that this process can be carried out in the same legislature with three-quarters of the elected deputies (45 out of 60).
In the current legislature, NI has 56 congressmen out of 84 and has the support of 8 parliamentarians from allied political parties. In the following period, the ruling party will occupy 54 positions out of 60 (after the reduction in the number of deputies in Congress), plus two allied deputies.
The approved decree justifies the reform in order to “have the necessary tools to face the social realities that Salvadorans demand in the face of the constant changes that the world is rapidly facing.” He adds that it would also serve to confront “any event that requires the reinforced protection of the Constitution to fundamental rights.”
“We are not taking anything away from the Constitution, what we are doing is adapting it to the changes that the new reality demands,” Christian Guevara, head of the ruling party’s bench, assured the plenary session.
Opposition: “They should be ashamed”
Given this, deputy Claudia Ortiz – from the opposition party COME ON– criticized the ruling party and accused them of “prescribing power” and removing “any limits on power.” He said that “they should be ashamed because this constitutes a betrayal of the people,” and added: “We are governed by the whim and whim of a group that is in power.”
Ortiz recalled that there are resolutions of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice that establish that reforms to the Constitution must be made before the legislative elections, to give the population the opportunity to support or not the reforms through their votes. Also, he told the ruling party to adjust the number of votes necessary to ratify the constitutional reforms to the result obtained in the elections at the beginning of March 2024.
Representative Marcela Villatoro, of the opposition Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), warned in the Congressional session that this change would seek “express reforms” to the Constitution. “It is not fair to want to change the rules of the game at the last minute,” said the legislator, expressing her rejection.
For their part, eleven social organizations “strongly” rejected the reform in a joint statement spread on social networks after the plenary session.
In September 2020, Bukele appointed his vice president, Félix Ulloa, to coordinate the study and proposal to reform the Constitution. A year later, the president received a draft to reform more than 200 articles of the Constitution, but this document has not yet been presented to Congress.
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