[Cispes-update] FMLN becomes largest force in El Salvador's Legislative Assembly; ARENA claims victory in capital city of San Salvador

[CISPES National Office]

FMLN becomes largest force in El Salvador's Legislative Assembly; ARENA
claims victory in capital city of San Salvador

Municipal and Legislative results set the stage for a hard-fought
presidential race leading up to March 15

CISPES Elections Update, January 19, 2009

 

On January 18, Salvadorans went to the polls to elect 262 mayors, one for
every municipality in the country, as well as 84 deputies in the national
assembly.  After a tense day of voting, both the leftist FMLN party and the
right-wing ARENA party celebrated victories, with the FMLN declaring itself
the largest political force in the country after winning the most seats in
the legislative assembly.  Though results are still preliminary, it appears
that the FMLN has increased its number of legislative deputies by four or
five, while the right-wing ARENA party has either lost seats or stayed at
the same level.  Such a victory would give the FMLN 37 or 38 seats in the
Assembly to ARENA's 33 or 34, a significant change in the correlation of
forces.   

On the other hand, ARENA claimed victory in the capital city of San
Salvador, though the Supreme Electoral Tribunal has yet to declare a winner,
and the FMLN has said that it must await more results.  ARENA's Norman
Quijano held a 2-3% lead with more than half the votes counted this morning.

Despite the tough reality of possibly losing San Salvador, the FMLN
celebrated victories in three of the next four largest cities in El
Salvador: Soyapango, Santa Tecla, and Santa Ana.  The latter is an
especially important victory given that the current mayor, Orlando Mena of
the PDC party, had controlled the city for nine years.  The FMLN also won
some key municipalities that it had previously not governed, including La
Union, Izalco, and Zacatecaluca, as well as winning most of the other
largest cities surrounding San Salvador, such as Mejicanos, Apopa, and San
Marcos.  Overall, the FMLN will likely win between 80 and 90 municipalities,
far more than the 59 that the party currently controls.

In the Legislative Assembly, another possible change relates to the number
of deputies that will be designated to third parties.  Following ARENA and
the FMLN, the centrist Christian Democratic (PDC) party appears poised to
become the third party in the Assembly with 7 seats, while the right-wing
PCN party will have around 5 seats.  The center-left CD party will have one
or two seats, while the FDR party, a center-left split-off from the FMLN,
failed to win a single seat.

Meanwhile, international observers are holding press conferences today and
tomorrow to announce their elections day observations.  Many observers
reported fraud on January 18, though it's unclear whether the accusations of
foreigners voting, people using false voting cards (DUIs), and vote buying,
among other things, were enough to shift the results of the municipal or
legislative elections.

Though final results had not been released, ARENA mayoral candidate Norman
Quijano held a press conference late in the evening of January 18 to declare
himself the next mayor of San Salvador.  ARENA has fought hard to win San
Salvador in recent years and carried out an extensive smear campaign against
current mayor Violeta Menjivar.  Meanwhile, at a gathering outside FMLN
party headquarters, party leaders said they would respect the results of the
San Salvador elections but insisted on waiting until all the votes were
counted. Mauricio Funes, the FMLN's candidate for the presidency, rallied
the crowd and reminded them that the biggest contest was yet to come: the
presidential elections on March 15 in which Funes holds a double-digit lead
in the polls.

 

FMLN members celebrate victories on January 18

 

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