El Salvador’s unicameral Congress, dominated by President Nayib Bukele’s New Ideas party, pushed through a package of constitutional amendments late Thursday that abolishes presidential term limits, extends each term to six years from five and eliminates run-off voting. The measures cleared the 60-seat chamber with 57 votes after a fast-track debate that lasted barely three hours. The overhaul also synchronises presidential, legislative and municipal elections and advances the next nationwide polls to March 2027. A reform approved in 2024 removed the requirement that constitutional changes be ratified by a subsequent legislature, allowing Thursday’s vote to take immediate effect. Bukele, first elected in 2019 and re-elected in 2024 with about 85% of the vote, is widely popular for a sweeping security crackdown that has driven homicide rates to record lows. Critics say that popularity has enabled an accelerating concentration of power, citing previous removals of Supreme Court justices and the attorney general. Human-rights organisations including Cristosal and Human Rights Watch denounced the amendments as a “death blow” to Salvadoran democracy, while opposition legislator Marcela Villatoro—one of only three members to vote against the bill—said, “Democracy has died in El Salvador today.” Foreign governments have yet to issue formal reactions.