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.
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.
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.
EL SALVADOR 2014 ELECTIONS BLOG 