Nayib Bukele Runs for Reelection as VanEck Touts El Salvador Bitcoin Model

It’s official. Nayib Bukele will be running for another term as El Salvador’s President next year.

The popular reformer, anti-violence crusader, and Bitcoin advocate needed an election tribunal’s go-ahead to run again.

Tribunal Greenlights Bukele Reelection Bid

Under El Salvador’s constitution, a President is limited to a 5-year term. Moreover, consecutive terms are also banned under the nation’s constitution.

A go-ahead from a special Supreme Electoral Tribunal, however, has put Bukele back in the 2024 presidential election. The decision follows a 2021 ruling by El Salvador’s Supreme Court of Justice allowing Bukele to seek a second term.

Bukele announced as far back as 2022 that he would be seeking reelection to another 5-year term as President. In September last year, amid an Independence Day celebration, the then 41-year-old president said:

I’m announcing to the Salvadoran people that I’ve decided to run as a candidate for president of the republic […] Developed countries have re-election. And thanks to the new configuration of the democratic institution of our country, now El Salvador will too.”

The president of El Salvador enjoys high public approval ratings for cracking down on gang violence. Bukele will be running on the ticket of the party he founded, the populist New Ideas Party.

In addition, he is one of the most outspoken government advocates for Bitcoin and blockchain in the world.

VanEck Touts El Salvador Bitcoin Policy

Meanwhile, VanEck advisor Gabor Gurbacs recently touted El Salvador’s approach to Bitcoin. The Wall Street hedge fund strategist said the Central American nation has “the potential to become the Singapore of the Americas.”

Here’s the full quote from Gurbacs’ X post:

I say often to portfolio managers and asset allocators that El Salvador has the potential to become the Singapore of the Americas. I expect continued increase in immigration to, capital investment in and overall growth in El Salvador. https://t.co/CmT554x12j

— Gabor Gurbacs (@gaborgurbacs) October 28, 2023

Gurbacs left this note on a retweet of a post by avowed Bitcoin maximalist Max Keiser. So it’s clear he’s referencing the Central American country’s lead on Bitcoin. Mr. Keiser is also the chairman of El Salvador-based Bitcoin mining startup Volcano Energy.

As a result of global social unrest, Keiser revised his Bitcoin price target to $220,000 in October.

Not everyone is so optimistic about El Salvador’s embrace of Bitcoin. The IMF warned this summer that El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin comes with increased risks and challenges.