Lara Pullin
The March 12 National Assembly and municipal elections were marked by a record 52% participation of eligible voters. Yet the elections have been rife with irregularities and violence against the left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), to such an extent that the FMLN's secretariat for international relations (SRI) has issued an urgent call for international condemnation of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal's (TSE) partisanship.
The TSE refused to accredit the more than 600 international observers who had arrived in San Salvador, many of whom have observed previous elections. The SRI pointed out that the constitutional reforms that followed El Salvador's decade-long civil war (which ended in 1992) prohibited the president's post from being used for other political campaigns. This was blatantly violated by Tony Saca during the election campaign, as the line between his role as president of the ultra-conservative ARENA (the Nationalist Republican Alliance) party and president of El Salvador was frequently crossed. The Commission for Human Rights and the Institute of Judicial Studies have condemned the role of Saca and ARENA as unconstitutional.
While the counts and recounts continue, the FMLN looks like holding 32 and the ARENA party 34 of the 84 seats in the national parliament. The remaining seats are likely to go to the centre parties — two to the social-democratic Democratic Convergence, seven to the Christian Democrats (PCD) and 10 to the conservative Party of National Conciliation (PCN) — which are expected to continue to govern in coalition with ARENA.
On March 16, the TSE declared the FMLN's Violeta Menjivar as the successful candidate for mayor of San Salvador, a key political position, by just 59 votes (64,881 to 64,822). Yet despite intense scrutineering and TSE results indicating Menjivar as the winner, Saca held a press conference to declare that ARENA candidate Rodrigo Samayoa (a former death squads leader) had won.
As news of the presidential mis-declaration of ARENA's "victory" in San Salvador spread, 25,000 protesters gathered in front of the TSE offices to defend Menjivar's election. Riot police responded by firing indiscriminately into the crowd and injuring seven people. But the protests continued until Menjivar's victory was confirmed by the TSE. The president and Samayoa have made no public statement since their initial claim.
The close vote in San Salvador shows the deep polarisation of views among the ever-shrinking Salvadoran middle class, and the growing alienation of the working poor. The FMLN, as the only party that even attempts to represent the poor and working masses, has pledged to continue the struggle both outside of the parliament as well as within.
From Green Left Weekly, March 22, 2006.
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