Amid high demand for voter ID renewals, ARENA claims “technical fraud”

Posted by CISPES

News outlets have been reporting that the voter ID registration centers were flooded with applicants seeking to replace or renew their ID cards over the past few days. After the February 2 election, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) announced that there were over 500,000 people on the 2014 voter registry whose ID card (known as a DUI) had expired and hence would be unable to vote until they were renewed.

The Right Continues Attempts to Undermine TSE

Right-wing protesters outside of the TSE (Photo: La Prensa Grafica)

by CISPES

Attacks attempting to discredit El Salvador’s electoral authority, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), have increased in recent weeks.  Most recently, lawsuits have been filed with the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court that question the constitutionality of TSE magistrates Eugenio Chicas and Walter Araujo. In addition to the Supreme Court cases, ARENA activists have staged a series of protests outside the TSE and submitted a formal complaint against the TSE to the Attorney General’s Office for an unrelated issue earlier in the month.  Considering that the official Organization of American States (OAS) observer mission as well as international observer missions invited by civil society groups and even the U.S. Embassy have highlighted the transparency and fairness of the February 2^nd electoral process, the efforts to discredit the TSE seem out of place. With polls showing a likely victory for the FMLN in the March 9^th runoff election, the attempts to cast doubt on the integrity of the TSE appear to be laying the groundwork for later questioning the legitimacy of the expected leftist victory.

First Lady protests withdrawal of forensics staff from women’s centers

Photo: Verdad Digital

by CISPES

First Lady Vanda Pignato, who also holds the government position of Secretary of Social Inclusion, has denounced a decision by the director of El Salvador’s Forensics Institute (Medicina Legal) to remove representatives of the institution from the country’s network of women’s services centers.  Forensics Institute staff, who conducted medical investigations in cases of sexual assault and domestic abuse, were withdrawn from two of El Salvador’s five Women’s City (Ciudad Mujer) centers, which provide free legal, medical and employment services to the nation’s women.  According to Pignato, the staff that was pulled from Ciudad Mujer informed her that Forensics Institute Director Miguel Fortín ordered their removal and declared that until the right-wing ARENA party returns to power there will be no Forensics Institute representatives in the Women’s Cities.

El Salvador Back on US Right’s Agenda as Runoff Vote Nears

Jim DeMint of the Heritage Foundation recently slandered the FMLN in the Miami Herald. (Photo: The Foundry)

by CISPES

Following the FMLN’s unprecedented 10-point victory over the ARENA party in El Salvador’s first round of Presidential elections on February 2^nd, right wing forces have reignited their campaign in the United States of fear and misinformation against the FMLN. The renewed effort comes as El Salvador approaches a March 9^th runoff election, with the leftist FMLN party poised to easily defeat the right-wing ARENA party, historically backed by the US government.

ARENA campaign sanctioned for slander

by CISPES

ARENA candidate Quijano’s campaign has been sanctioned more than any other. (Photo: VerdadDigital.com)

According to El Salvador’s electoral authority, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party has been sanctioned for violating electoral regulations more than any other party. Eugenio Chicas, President of the TSE, told the press, “The ARENA party has received 29 complaints and the UNIDAD Movement has around 7 complaints.”

Most recently, the TSE required that ARENA stop airing a TV commercial they determined slandered the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) candidate Salvador Sánchez Cerén, who is also the current Vice-President of the country.

Increase in homicides linked to “extermination groups” and ARENA campaign

Photo: Transparencia Activa

by CISPES

Since the beginning of the New Year and with the February 2^nd presidential elections less than two weeks away, El Salvador has seen a dramatic increase in homicides.  In the month of January, El Salvador has seen an average of 9.4 violent deaths per day, a shocking increase from months past, many of them carried out en masse and reminiscent of death squad-style murders.

President Funes expresses concern about possible link between increased violence and electoral season

On January 16th, the President’s Communication Secretary released the following statement. (Unofficial translation into English by U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities).

President Mauricio Funes expressed concern about the recent reported increase in violence attributed to gang members because, according to intelligence reports, it could be related to the electoral situation in the country.

“I worry that there is a relationship or there could be a relationship between this insistence on the part of ARENA that Salvadorans are tired of the crime wave sweeping the country, with the increase in homicides,” said the president in his press release.