John Kerry congratulates Salvador Sánchez Cerén

by CISPES

This morning, US Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Salvador Sánchez Cerén for his election as president of El Salvador [full text after the jump].  The international solidarity community celebrates this important recognition of the decision made by Salvadoran voters at the polls on March 9th in elections the Organization of American States and the United Nations have applauded as highly transparent and fair. The US Embassy in El Salvador reiterated Kerry’s congratulations in a statement published on Twitter.

Mass Media a Key Ally In ARENA Destabilization Campaign

by CISPES

In the wake of El Salvador’s tight March 9^th Presidential elections, the country’s national commercial media, always notoriously conservative, have become active agents in spreading confusion and misinformation generated by the ARENA party in its quest to undermine El Salvador’s democratic institutions. The media’s complicity in ARENA’s campaign to contest the election results and generate political instability have drawn sharp criticism from across Salvadoran civil and political society.

TSE Formally Announces Sánchez Cerén As El Salvador’s President-Elect; ARENA Will Continue To Contest Results

by CISPES

On Sunday March 16^th, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) formally announced that FMLN candidate Salvador Sánchez Cerén is El Salvador’s new president-elect. Although the final review of the elections results finished on March 12^th, giving the FMLN the win 50.11% to 49.89%, the TSE was first obliged to respond to a series of formal petitions filed by the ARENA party calling to annul the elections before officially declaring a winner.

Groups gather to applaud electoral authority

by CISPES

Photo: ContraPunto

Yesterday morning, with the final vote count finally finished, social movement organizations and civil society groups gathered at the Salvador del Mundo monument in San Salvador to celebrate that the count was finished and to demand that the country’s democratic institutions be respected.

Results are in: FMLN wins presidential elections

by CISPES

Last night, shortly after midnight, El Salvador’s electoral authority, the Supreme

TSE’s final results (Image: Tribunal Supremo Electoral)

Electoral Tribunal (TSE), finished the final count of the original vote tally sheets from each of the country’s 10,445 voting tables. The process was delayed by the right-wing ARENA party, whose representatives abandoned the counting tables on multiple occasions throughout the evening. In the name of stability and the public’s right to the results, the TSE ultimately decided continue the count with or without ARENA’s presence. The final results came in with 1,495,815 votes for FMLN candidate Salvador Sánchez Cerén and 1,489,451 votes for ARENA candidate Norman Quijano, a difference of 6,364 votes, or 0.22%, in favor of the FMLN.

Electoral authority informs diplomatic corps about elections

by CISPES

Today the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Eugenio Chicas, as well as the Minister of Foreign Relations, Jaime Miranda, gave a presentation to over 50 ambassadors of foreign nations and heads of international organisms stationed in El Salvador to inform them about the elections.

Chicas highlighted the transparency of the result transmission process, in which copies of the original vote counts recorded at voting tables were given to representatives of the Attorney General’s Office, the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office, and the competing political parties. 

Upside Down World: In the Face of an Expected Election Defeat, El Salvador’s Right-wing ARENA Party ‘Prepared for War’

Check out an excellent article about Sunday’s elections on Upside Down World by CISPES Executive Director Alexis Stoumbelis.  You can read the original post on UDW here.  A copy of the article is available after the jump.

Democracy Now! CISPES Report on tense results of March 9 presidential election

From Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/10/leftist_ex_rebel_holds_narrow_lead

Both candidates have claimed victory in El Salvador’s presidential election after a preliminary count showed the vote was too close to call. The race pitted the governing party’s Salvador Sánchez Cerén against the right-wing candidate Norman Quijano. Sánchez Cerén, a former rebel commander, was running to replace Mauricio Funes, marking the first time an FMLN candidate succeeds another after decades of right-wing governments. Sánchez Cerén was seen as the favorite coming in but the latest results show him ahead less than 1 percent. We go to El Salvador to speak with Laura Embree-Lowry of CISPES, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador.

US Embassy calls for patience as final election results are awaited

The US Embassy released a statement about yesterday’s elections and the pending official results.  Statement and English translation after the jump.

ARENA prematurely declares victory to influence perception of final results

Members of ARENA’s executive committee just held a press conference declaring victory. When the press conference was held, 77.16% of voting tables were reporting, and the FMLN lead over ARENA, but only by 0.16%. According to the Director of El Faro, Carlos Dada, “It is very irresponsible for a political party to declare victory at this point.”

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) held a press conference about an hour ago, in which they said no tendency had yet been established, and called on the Salvadoran people and political parties to remain calm and await the final results.

This has raised concerns that ARENA will not respect the final results as announced by the TSE.