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.

Rep. McGovern becomes 2nd congressperson to support the Electoral Tribunal

By CISPES

Joining Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA) is now the 2nd U.S. congressperson to publish a statement commending El Salvador’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) for its “professionalism” and calling El Salvador’s elections “orderly, peaceful, free and fair.” McGovern also called on all political parties exercise “patience, calm and professionalism.” Rep. McGovern’s statements come as a result of a grassroots campaign to bolster international support for the TSE as it faces a right-wing assault from the losing ARENA party. Call your representative to ask that s/he join Reps. McGovern and Moran in making a public declaration in support of democracy in El Salvador.

Read the full text below.

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.

U.S. Congressman applauds the Electoral Tribunal for final vote count

By CISPES

Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) issued this bilingual statement  congratulating the Salvadoran people on their democratic election, applauding the Supreme Electoral Tribunal for its impartial and transparent management of the elections – especially the final vote count – and expressing his enthusiasm to continue good relations with El Salvador’s next president.

Read his full statement below:

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.

International Observers Attest to Robust and Transparent Democratic Process

Representatives of the CISPES and SHARE observer missions report to the press

On Tuesday, observers from CISPES and the SHARE Foundation held a press conference for the Salvadoran media to share their observations and evaluation of Sunday’s election, in which a record number of Salvadorans participated to elect their next president. Voter turnout was over 60% and, according the preliminary results, the winning candidate, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, received the highest number of votes of any candidate in the country’s history (over 1.4 million).

Human Rights Ombudsman calls elections tranquil, calls on population to vote without fear

by CISPES

In an interview on Channel 33 less than an hour before the scheduled 5:00 PM

Human Rights Ombudsman David Morales (Photo: Democracy in the Americas)

closing of the polls, Human Rights Ombudsman David Morales highlighted the tranquility of today’s electoral process.  “We haven’t observed any serious anomalies,” he said.  Morales commented that they had received different denouncements throughout the day that the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office had investigated, mentioning isolated cases of people with disabilities and transgendered people being denied the right to vote.

Tomorrow is Election Day

by CISPES

Voting centers will open to poll workers to start setting up at 5 AM.  They will open to the general public and voting will begin at 7 AM. At 5 PM the voting centers close, any voter already in line to vote at 5 PM is allowed to vote.  Once voting ends, poll workers will count the votes at their voting tables and results will be electronically transmitted to a Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) center in San Salvador.  TSE president Eugenio Chicas says they are confident they will be able to announce a result by 10 PM.

Stay tuned to this blog for news as well as observer reports from the CISPES, SHARE Foundation, and Sister Cities international observer delegations which will be in voting centers across the country from 5 AM until the last vote is counted and results are transmitted to San Salvador.

More than 4,000 observers will monitor elections

by CISPES

According to an article in El Universal, more than 4,000 observers have been accredited by El Salvador’s electoral authority, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, to monitor the country’s February 2 presidential elections, as well as pre- and post-electoral activities. Of these, 2,318 are national Salvadoran observers and 1,830 are international observers. International observers will come from official missions of the Organization of American States, European Union, Inter-American Union of Electoral Organisms, Council of Latin American Electoral Experts, and the International Federation of Lawyers, as well as groups invited by Salvadoran civil society organizations, including the CISPES, U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities and SHARE Foundation observer delegations.  All observers are accredited and trained by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to help guarantee the transparency of the electoral process.

Senators call on John Kerry to declare US neutrality in El Salvador’s elections

Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (Photo: The Roanoke Times)

by CISPES

Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Marc Warner sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday, January 24, asking him to, “[make] clear that the U.S. government will work closely with any candidate who wins fair elections.”  Their letter  affirmed that doing this would be a step towards supporting a “free, fair and transparent vote.”

Virginia is home to 123,800 Salvadorans.  The 2014 presidential election will be the first election in El Salvador in which Salvadorans living abroad can participate through absentee voting.