By Margaret Gleeson
SAN SALVADOR — Four women former comandantes are among the FMLN deputies elected on March 20. They are Lorena Pena Mendosa (Rebecca Palacios), Ana Guadalupe Martinez, Nidia Diaz and Norma Guevara.
Speaking to Green Left after the election, Lorena Pena, a member of the National Council of the FMLN, said that in spite of the extent of technical fraud, and the corrupt electoral practices of the parties of the right, it would be "a wrong conclusion that it was not worth the effort" to participate in the elections. The FMLN had scored a genuine victory: it would be the second largest grouping in the Assembly and had forced the right-wing Arena government to a second round on April 24.
Pena told Green Left of specific instances which proved that the electoral roll prepared by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) was not accurate. Many thousands of voters were turned away because they did not appear on the roll, in spite of being in possession of voter identity cards issued by the TSE. Included in this category was an FMLN candidate for the Assembly who was elected, although denied a vote on the day.
It was obvious that the TSE had not made a serious attempt to update the roll, Pena told Green Left, "because one of the Jesuit priests murdered by the government in 1989 was still recorded" on it.
"There are two major injustices with the present electoral system: the operation of the TSE, which is dominated by parties of the right and has no direct representation from the FMLN, and the electoral register. To change the TSE and the register is a question of life or death for our democratic process."
In the second round, Ana Guadalupe Martinez told Green Left, a decline in the FMLN vote was likely. "ARENA will bloc with the PCN to drive down the FMLN vote, and many FMLN supporters, particularly in the countryside where they have to travel many kilometres at great cost, may decide not to vote", Martinez said.
The FMLN has decided to go into the second round with the aim of getting access to the electoral register. The advantage of this would be proof that fraud took place on all levels. In addition the FMLN wants to broaden its alliances with the small parties that lost in the first round and hopes to win them over to its program.