The top court in El Salvador has ruled that a president can serve two consecutive terms, opening the door for President Nayib Bukele to run again in 2024.
The Central American nation's electoral authority said on Saturday it would adhere to the controversial decision by the Supreme Court.
The court ruled that the previously mandatory pause of 10 years between two terms as head of state was no longer necessary, effective immediately.
The ruling came four months after the Legislative Assembly, in which Bukele's New Ideas party has the majority, voted to stack the Supreme Court with several judges close to Bukele.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had denounced the move in May by Bukele's allies.
Activists were outraged by the judiciary's decision this weekend to reinterpret the constitution to the advantage of a president whom critics have repeatedly accused of authoritarian tendencies.
"Democracy in El Salvador is on the edge of the abyss," the regional head of Human Rights Watch, Jose Miguel Vivanco, wrote on Twitter on Saturday after Bukele got the green light to immediately run for re-election.
Bukele, 40, won in 2019 on an anti-establishment, tough on crime platform. Making appearances in jeans and baseball caps, he appealed to young voters and others distrustful of traditional politics.
Critics say he quickly started following a path to dictatorship with his systematic disregard for the country's separation of powers.
In February 2020, Bukele sent military troops to march on parliament to pressure lawmakers to approve his law enforcement funding request.
