El Salvador: Left wins national elections

The left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) has won 86 of the 262 mayorships of El Salvador in March 1 elections, including the capital San Salvador, according to preliminary reports, TeleSUR English said on March 4.

The ruling FMLN also announced it won a legislative majority in the National Assembly and the Central American Parliament.

The FMLN said it would now govern areas covering more than 65% of the population, compared to 45% in the past.

FMLN Secretary-General Medardo Gonzalez told the Salvadoran people his party would continue efforts in favour of the more vulnerable sectors of society.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) is yet to release the official electoral results, but Gonzalez said the preliminary results were accepted by “practically all the parties”.

The TSE said it might take at least a week to finalise the election results. TSE president Julio Olivo said on March 4 that unidentified persons or groups had sabotaged the transmission of results.

“We are going to denounce this situation to the whole nation. Sabotage has been committed,” he said. “Sabotage has been carried out against the electoral counting system and we are going to prove it with conclusive evidence.”

The delay in the transmission of final election results has been linked to tactics by the largest right-wing party, ARENA, which has lost support from Salvadorans, mainly due to the US-imposed neoliberal policies it implemented in the past.

[Abridged from TeleSUR English.]

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