Voters in El Salvador went to the polls yesterday to choose lawmakers for the legislature in a big test for the first leftist government since the end of the civil war 20 years ago.
At stake are how Salvadorian President Mauricio Funes’ remaining two years in office will play out. He took power in 2009 in the tiny, densely populated Central American nation.
Funes remains popular, but his approval ratings will not necessarily transfer into votes for his party, the ex-leftist reebl Farbundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).
According to a recent poll, the FMLN — which governs allied with right-wing dissidents — scored 27.8 percent.
The conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) — which ruled the country for two decades after the civil war — had 26.4 percent, in a statistical dead heat, in the poll conducted by the Central American University (UCA).
The FMLN has campaigned promising social programs and job creation in a nation with nearly one-third of the population unemployed and one of the highest murder rates in the world.
Arena has pledged a tougher tack against crime and youth gangs.
Both main parties “have developed similar propaganda ... without explaining how they will deliver on their promises,” UCA Institute of Public Opinion director said.
A distant third is the Gana grouping, led by former Salvadorian president Elias Antonio Saca, with barely 6.3 percent. Saca was expelled from Arena and the party’s 14 lawmakers gave a majority to the Funes government in the current Salvadorian Congress.
The FMLN says it plans to build a simple majority with at least two minority parties this time around. The vote is for 84 lawmakers in the one-chamber assembly, as well as 262 mayors nationwide.
Though nine parties are battling for votes, the FMLN and Arena are by far the lead players. The others are hoping for, at best, political alliances.
“It really is better for no party to be the dominant one. We need for there to be power-sharing in the legislature. That makes it a requirement for lawmakers to debate and make deals on major decisions. That is how a democracy works,” political analyst Antonio Martinez said.
There is also a technical dead heat in the polls for mayors, apart from in the capital, San Salvador, where Arena is expected to hold on to the post.
Current San Salvador Mayor Norman Quijano scored 57.8 percent against 22 percent for FMLN candidate Schafik Handal in the UCA poll.
Unemployment and under--employment have both dropped slightly, from 40 percent to 36 percent, under the Funes administration, while young people have continued to emigrate to the US.
A staggering one in three Salvadorans live in the US, providing remittances of more than US$3.6 billion last year, about one sixth of GDP.
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