El Salvador opposition picks 2027 candidates to challenge Bukele and Bitcoin policy

El Salvador’s two main opposition parties have chosen presidential candidates for the February 2027 election, setting up a contest against President Nayib Bukele and the state Bitcoin strategy closely associated with his presidency. The Nationalist Republican Alliance, ARENA, selected former lawmaker Maytee Iraheta, while the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, picked physician and union leader Rafael Aguirre. Both campaigns have criticized Bukele’s Bitcoin approach as a fiscal failure rather than endorsing it. Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party nominated him this month, with Vice President Felix Ulloa again as his running mate. ARENA’s ticket is a first for the party because Iraheta and her running mate form its first all-female pairing. Still, the opposition faces a steep political imbalance: ARENA holds two seats in the Legislative Assembly, the FMLN has had none since 2024, and Bukele’s popularity remains high after six years in office. Polling suggests public support is driven more by crime policy than by crypto. One national poll recently put Bukele’s approval above 94%, while only 2.2% of Salvadorans identified Bitcoin as his biggest failure. The issue has also become less central to daily commerce since February 2025, when a $1.4 billion IMF (International Monetary Fund) loan agreement was followed by the removal of the requirement that businesses accept Bitcoin, effectively restoring the U.S. dollar as the country’s only official currency for everyday use. Even so, the National Bitcoin Office has continued buying roughly one BTC per day. The government also increased its gold reserves in January. Its Bitcoin Office tracker showed holdings at about 7,730 BTC as of July 27, up from roughly 7,700 BTC a month earlier, indicating Bukele’s one-BTC-a-day pledge remains in effect. The IMF has repeatedly warned that the strategy poses fiscal and governance risks, and critics say it has not measurably expanded financial inclusion for unbanked Salvadorans. The next president, who will govern until 2033, will inherit a position still exposed to market volatility. Bitcoin was trading near $65,300, roughly half its October 2025 record above $126,000. That drop had already wiped nearly $300 million from the state’s holdings earlier this year. While some analysts link Bitcoin’s next move more to pending U.S. regulation than to Salvadoran politics, the February 2027 vote is set to determine whether the country keeps accumulating Bitcoin or stops.