Presidential Elections in El Salvador: The Lion vs. The Dentist

by CISPES

(re-posted from NACLA website)

This Sunday, March 9th, El Salvador will elect its next president in a run-off election. The candidate for the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), Salvador Sánchez Cerén, has a strong lead over right wing candidate, Norman Quijano, from the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA); polls show the FMLN with up to a 16-point margin (CID-Gallup, February 19). This moment is something of a dreamscape for those who set down their weapons just over 22 years ago when the 1992 Peace Accords were signed. When the guerrillas came down from the mountains and the military stopped hunting its citizens and the U.S. government stopped signing checks to fund the military, those on the left wondered if the moment for real political change had passed.

Polls are opening to the public across the country

posted by CISPES

In San Martín, a large municipality on the outskirts of San Salvador, CISPES observers are currently monitoring the beginning of the voting process.

The Casa Comunal Voting Center of San Martín, San Salvador, opens at 7 AM