SHARE's Programs

March 12 th was Election Day in El Salvador, where people gathered to elect their municipal mayors, and deputies to the Legislative Assembly. Over 50% of the population came out to vote, which is more people than came out for the last legislative elections.

Leading up to the elections, it is worth noting some general comments about the state of voter confidence. When asked in one study by the University of Central America (UCA), people voted the political parties with the lowest rating of confidence and gave the highest vote of confidence to the Catholic and Evangelical churches, followed by the media. There was general suspicion that election fraud would be a factor in the results. These observations would indicate a distrust and loss of faith in political parties. That said, 40.7% of the people said they were interested in voting in the upcoming elections, and even more came out.

Pre-election fever

There were a number of factors in the air also leading up to the elections that could have influenced election results. In a trip to Washington, DC just two weeks before the elections, President Tony Saca managed to secure another year of TPS (Temporary Protected Status) for a number of Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and Hondurans living in the US, and he managed to implement CAFTA (with promises that this would help the Salvadoran economy). Both of which were successes that poised to favor ARENA.

ARENA could have also benefited from a change in the Electoral Supreme Court (TSE) procedures which now makes decisions based on a simple majority rather than a unanimous majority. While every legal party that maintains the required percentage is represented on the court, the parties on the right have a higher representation. Thus a simple majority gives the right more influence and power in making decisions.

On the left, there was a feeling that Schafik Handal’s death and the passage of CAFTA would bring more people to vote for the FMLN. Another factor in the mix was the creation of an alliance among the Christian Democrat Party (CD) and those members who attempted to form a new party on the left (FDR) (that the Electoral Supreme Court did not legalize last fall, even though they had the required number of signatures), which raised questions about how this would influence the votes for the left too.

Election Day

On Election Day, people came out to vote. Each person had a piece of paper with the symbols and names of each political party and each person marked an X with a crayon on their chosen candidate and the voting officials colored each voter’s thumbprint with a permanent marker to indicate that he or she had voted.. Tara Carr Lemke, SHARE’s DC Policy and Office Director served as an official election observer. She remarked, “I was surprised by the somewhat low levels of participation. There were not as many lines to vote as I remember from the presidential elections in 2004. It will be important to analyze why this was the case.” Indeed it will. Even though there was a slightly higher voter turnout than the last legislative elections, the numbers were around 20% lower than the turn out for the presidential elections (which had a turnout rate of over 70%).

While SHARE observers did not observe irregularities with their own eyes on the day of the election, there were reports of people being bussed in from Nicaragua and Honduras to vote for ARENA in some area to win municipalities.

Preliminary Voting Results

While most election results were known by Tuesday the 14 th, the mayoral election in San Salvador was too close to call. In the end, the TSE had to recount all of the votes. There was wide concern among the FMLN for the possibility of fraud yet to occur. On Wednesday, a group of FMLN supporters gathered in front of the Radisson Hotel where the TSE was recounting the votes. They chanted “Fraud, fraud.” Then there was a bizarre turn of events. During this protest, a gun went off in the crowd. It is unclear if it came from a protestor, the police or a police infiltrator. Dr. Beatrice de Carrillo, the Human Rights Ombudswoman, tried to mediate the situation between the police unit and the protestors. In the end, she gave up and the police started spraying tear gas at the crowd. Later that night, people gathered to hear the announcement that the FMLN candidate, Violeta Menjívar, won by 59 votes. Marina Peña, Director of the SHARE El Salvador Office said, “This is a historic defeat for a President of the Republic that launched an electoral campaign for his party, openly violating the Constitution of the Republic. He remains left behind after he proclaimed his candidate the winner.”

Overall, ARENA gained more municipalities and deputy seats in this election than the last one. In fact, they won more municipalities than any other party. In the case of the FMLN, they lost some of the municipalities they previously had held, but gained others and broke even.

The electoral race for deputies was as close as the San Salvador mayoral election. A report done by the UCA, Gallup and UTEC predicted that ARENA would earn between 30-35 deputies and that the FMLN would earn between 30-33 deputies. At this moment the FMLN has earned 32 deputies and ARENA has 34. It is possible in the end that they will both have 33. The PCN has 10 deputies (another party on the right), the PDC (center) has 6, and the CD (center-left) has 2. These numbers are important because both the FMLN and ARENA will have to make alliances if they are to push through legislation. Right now, ARENA will most likely be able to build alliances with the PCN to pass laws with a simple majority, but for those laws that require 2/3 of the votes for approval, they will be forced to negotiate with the FMLN.

At this point it is hard to analyze how the pre-election factors impacted the election results. This would require examining wins and losses on an individual basis, or conducting a post election poll.

Election results among SHARE’s partners

Two SHARE stories worth highlighting in this election campaign demonstrate the value of accompaniment and supporting women’s empowerment, leadership development and citizen participation. On the municipal level, the municipal council runs as a whole ticket. If the mayor of one party wins, the whole party wins. In Chalchuapa, the FMLN was re-elected to govern the municipality. One of SHARE’s partners, the Women’s Institute (IMU) has been training women leaders from different communities in Chalchuapa. These women return to their community and lead them in eight different discussions that encourage women’s empowerment and growth. Doris Gonzalez is one of these leaders. She was just elected to the municipal council in Chalchuapa.

In Aguilares, Osmín Salinas was just elected to the municipal council there. This province was previously governed by the PCN and will now be governed by the FMLN. Osmín is from the community of el Buen Pastor, which partners with Good Shepherd in Kansas. It is through the 18 years of accompaniment that Osmín has been able to grow as a leader in his community and in CRIPDES.

oth of these examples demonstrate the importance of the work that our sustainers, donors and the sistering partnership churches and schools are supporting and how we can bring the marginalized poor into important decision making positions, giving them the opportunity to improve the lives of people in El Salvador.

In Peace Teresa Cruz