SHARE's Electoral Observation Delegation
(Santa Ana, Chalchuapa, El Congo, Aguilares, Tecoluca y Zacatecoluca)

Pre-Election Period:

The Share Election Observer's Delegation numbered 110 people from the USA. The delegation had a diverse membership including lawyers (National Lawyer's Guild), Christian pacifist groups (Pax Christi), Foundation members, Donor organizations (Grantmakers without Borders), students, teachers, church representatives, members of the Salvadoran American community and community leaders.

The delegation came with the commitment to contribute to the transparency, legality and legitimacy of the March 21st election. We met our commitment and completed our assignment abiding by the rules governing international observer teams.

On our arrival we became aware of the atmosphere of social tension that existed primarily as a result of political violence, partisan insults and the encouragement of fear, mainly fostered by the media, which permeated the campaign.

We were also well aware that many of the campaign messages were completely false. Furthermore, it was well known that many of the statements were signed by individuals or organizations which according to electoral law were not authorized to campaign in the name of a particular party. Only those political parties registered and in contention can legally campaign.

We confirmed that an ad that appeared in the major newspapers signed by the Association of FMLN Veterans which slandered the candidates of the opposition party was in fact mis- attributed. The Electoral Vigilance Committee verified on their website that the names and Document of Unique Identity (DUI) numbers were falsified.

We made note of the fact that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) made no effort to control the violent and polarizing direction taken by the campaign as indicated by their lack of response to accusations of campaign violations.

OBSERVATIONS MADE ON ELECTION DAY MAY 21, 2004

The SHARE observation delegation worked in the following municipalities:
El Congo, Santa Ana and Chalchuapa in the Department of Santa Ana; Aguilares in the Department of San Salvador; Tecoluca in the Department of San Vicente and Zacatecoluca in the Department of La Paz.

Following are the results:

Municipality of El Congo, Department of Santa Ana

Installation and Opening of the Election Sites:
The site opened promptly at 4:00 for the JEM to begin the process. Although credentials of the participants were checked in some instances, other persons not part of the JEM were admitted without showing credentials. The JRV members and vigilantes were admitted at 5:00; vigilantes generally presented their credential letter upon entering. The polls opened at 7am, voting started shortly thereafter. Supplies were complete. In some cases JRV members had not completed their own voting when the public entered the polling place. In very few cases were the DUI's of the JRV's and vigilantes put into the ballot box. In some cases, JRV members failed to sign and thumbprint the padron during their own vote.

The Voting Process:

Overall, the voting process went very smoothly and almost everyone appeared to be able to vote with ease. The lines were not uncomfortably long; the officials treated voters respectfully and helped them when necessary, as did the vigilantes.

There were some problems noted regarding the roles of vigilantes. JRV's generally had only one vigilante per party inside, though sometimes other party supporters came in at other points (e.g., vigilante supervisors, Arena clothed people bringing food, etc.) There was a heavy ARENA presence directly outside of each JRV, sometimes one Arena member on each side of the entry to the JRV, creating the impression that Arena was running the process. Of great concern were instances where Arena vigilantes standing in front of the JRV rooms, took the DUI's out of the hands of voters who were not seeking help. In many cases, the Arena vigilantes walked away for a period of time, sometimes holding up to three DUI's, causing great concern to voters. There were other parties who had representatives directly outside of the JRV's as well. Vigilantes were sometimes seen sitting behind the JRV tables. Some of these vigilantes were seen playing roles that the JRV was supposed to play.

There was a significant problem with Arena clad "orienters" outside the voting center. They were positioned about every 15 feet or so with their own copies of voting lists. Many of these Arena supporters arrived as an organized group shortly after 5am. They remained there until the fiscal, deeming their presence illegal, told them to leave. Though there were a few FMLN supporters that also began serving a similar role as "orienters", they only began to do so in response to the strong Arena activity. FMLN leaders told us that they had reached a compromise before election day that there would be no "orienters", but felt compelled to respond to the Arena activity.

The Arena party appeared to be distributing voter cards with Arena colors, slogans and voter information. The fiscal and the JEM both agreed this is illegal. One card was provided to our team, a second card was observed by one of our team, and we received reports that it was widespread. We were informed that the voters received these cards from the Arena had a "Voter Information Center."

Concerns were raised that the President of the JEM, from the Arena party, intimidated official members of the FMLN by berating them in the presence of voters.

All observers were impressed by the privacy that voters were accorded. Almost without exception, each voter had complete secrecy of their vote; however, one voter was observed to be concerned by a vigilante having lunch behind the voting booth. The vigilante was completely unaware of this discomfort.

A couple of individuals were noted to have encountered some difficulty voting, including one woman who tried to vote and was informed that someone had already voted in her name. She was ultimately allowed vote after the JEM president and fiscal promptly intervened. Also, police officers expressed frustration about being excluded from voting.

Closing of Elections:

The votes were counted accurately. The major parties had representation and could see the count of all votes. There were several votes found to be invalid, but where the voters' intentions appeared clear. There was a significant disparity in terms of training of the JRV teams regarding closing.

Only about half of the JRVs counted the ballot corners to test the accuracy of the vote. The JRVs were quite efficient with the counting of the votes, most finishing between 6pm and 7pm. Of concern, a couple of the JRVs used the counting time to go back to complete paperwork (such as stamping of the padron or x-ing out the proper number of voters).

The President of the JEM reviewed each of the tally sheets to insure they were complete and accurate. While this sometimes made for greater meticulousness; some material changes were made to the yellow form only. It was unclear whether others from the JRV were aware that the changes were made. In one case, the figures were off by one digit and the individual was instructed to go back and fix the math, which she did and represented it with the correct total.

Municipality of Chalchuapa, Department of Santa Ana

Installation and Opening of the Vote:
When the JRV's were scheduled to vote they did not place their DUIs in the voting box as indicated by the electoral law. The JRV arrived at 6am but did not open the voting site until after 7:30am. The principal voting site opened an hour late because the president of the JEM delayed the opening.

The observation team received a complaint about ARENA poll workers taking the DUIs from voters saying they would return them later.

We noted some discussions between ARENA and FMLN poll workers at the JRVs about their seating allocations at the voting tables. But this was resolved by the intervention of the party supervisors.

We also noted that the JRV were wearing party colors, especially the FMLN and ARENA.
At some voting boxes the voting packages were not complete. Seals and copies of the
actas de apertura were missing and at three voting boxes the voting list on the table did not match the voting list in the wall. The local administrator determined that it was the fault of the TSE, but all of this delayed the voting.
There was not a lot of party propaganda at the sites.
There was privacy for the voters although the ARENA observers positioned themselves behind or near the ballot boxes.

The Voting Process:

On the whole the voting process went smoothly although the lines were long. At times the JRV did not know what they were doing. More propaganda appeared at the site as the day wore on. There are about 200-230 ballots in each voting box. Less than ten people were unable to vote because their names did not appear on the voting list.

Many people refused to vote at the first ballot box because it did not display the seal.
There has been no violence; however, the number of ARENA observers has doubled. In the afternoon there were two ARENA observers at each ballot box. Very few people were unable to vote. In the JRV's the process has been followed but in a different order. It was noted that there were ARENA observers who did not have their finger ink-marked which meant they had not voted. Both the ARENA and FMLN observers have been noting how the people are voting.

Election Closure:

In about 50% of the voting sites the closure was delayed because the number of torn corner pieces did not match the number of ballots cast, requiring up to 3 recounts. At 6:50 pm the count had not yet finished. At all the ballot boxes ARENA beat FMLN by 30 to 40 votes.

At the other 50% of the sites the closure was done by 5pm. The count was finished by 6:30pm. At one site it was observed that there were up to 3 ARENA observers per table. In all cases ARENA won. At each JRV the level of participation was high between 250-300 people.

Municipality of Santa Ana, Department of Santa Ana.

Installation and Opening of the Vote:

Observation began at 6am (our group of observers was not allowed in) and it seems they also barred voters from entering.

At 7:37am the voting center opened (this was late). The line of people waiting to vote is very very long. At INSA only one person at a time was allowed in to vote. Because of this it seems some people left without voting. It wasn't until 9am that the doors were finally opened allowing in a large number of people.

The set up of the JRV was normal. At some of the ballot boxes the ballots were out of numerical order but otherwise there were no problems.

At several voting sites the staff did not know what to do. There was confusion. We noted that they allowed several people to vote without signing the voting list.
People could not find the table number that they were assigned to. Tables were being moved around in order to be in the shade.
Outside the voting sites there were ARENA and FMLN party workers handing out party propaganda.

Observers from the PCN and ARENA parties positioned themselves 2 to 3 feet behind the voting boxes in order to see how the people were voting. One member of the PCN was pointing out things on the ballot to one of the voters.
Once a PCN supervisor removed a PCN observer for standing just a foot away from a voter.
There is a large ARENA presence at the voting centers. Some voting booths are open and the party observers can see the voters.

The Voting Process:

The secrecy of the vote improved as the day went on. In general things were calm and normal.

When the observer delegation arrived at 2pm the place was empty. No one was voting. The JRV busied themselves filling out the paperwork preparing for the final count even though they were not supposed to touch these papers until the voting was closed.
They were not signing the voting reports or filling in the counts, they were just filling in other information.

At the same time at INSA we noted that there several JRV presidents (primarily ARENA's) signing large numbers of ballots ahead of time (50 at a time.)
The problem is that the signed ballots if not used, are still potentially valid. The observers spoke to the supervisor about this. He immediately took action by pointing out to the JRV that this was wrong. They counted how many ballots had been signed. They then assigned observers to the table to count the number of voters that voted until the number of previously signed ballots was matched. In this way it was assured that the signed ballots were actually used by voters.

At the INDES just a few cases of JRV presidents pre-signing ballots was noted.

At JRV 3023 several people arrived to vote and found that someone had already voted in their name. One observer asked how many times this had happened and was told about 3 or 4. The same thing had happened at JRV 3050, 3044 and 3030.

Later it was determined that there were about 15 cases in which the fotos and DUIs of the voters appeared on the list hanging on the wall but did not appear in the JRV list. The JRV did not allow these people to vote.

We also protested that one person was allowed to vote three times and others twice and at another JRV the DUI of one voter was lost.
There were still people inside the voting site at the time of closure and they were not allowed to vote.

Election Closure:

The voting centers closed at 5:04pm. We observed that there were still many people inside. The criteria for accepting valid or void ballots were an arbitrary process. On average there were 250-300 votes per JRV.

Suggestions:

Municipality of Tecoluca, Department of San Vicente.

Installation and Opening of the Vote:

The Municipal Electoral Committee (JEM) started its work at 6:15 and 6:40 am, opening the auxiliary sites at 7:30am. In general the atmosphere was calm. There were a few discussions at some tables about just how many ARENA observers should be there. The main problem was the voters not knowing what to do, especially the senior citizens.

Another confusion was the order in which things should be done at each table. There were damaged ballots. We also noticed that a president of the Receiving Committee was signing ballots before the voting started. One ARENA observer positioned himself so he could see who the voter was voting for. There was no problem with propaganda or conflicts between parties. The police behaved well. They offered us security and introduced us to other Spanish observers. The voting lines are long and the elderly have problems with it. Quite a few buses are arriving in Tecoluca which indicates that the parties are interested in getting their people to the polls. There are 30 voting tables. This is a small place so even though the people want to vote the long wait is annoying and some prefer to leave. In general the atmosphere is calm The voting booths have low walls so if someone is near you can see who the person is voting for.

The Voting Process:

We have begun to notice that ARENA observers have been handing out propaganda to the voters. We wrote down the numbers of the ballot boxes where this happened.

FMLN observers asked that the ARENA observers not pass out propaganda near the voting boxes because it could be seen as influencing the vote. The ARENA observers in turn pointed out to the international observers that at one JRV the president of the FMLN observer team was signing ballots before they were used. As a result that person was substituted by someone appointed by the person legally in charge.
In the afternoon the number of voters was less. The lines were shorter. It is obvious that voting has been heavy since the piles of ballots have been substantially reduced.
The voting boxes are still quite visible. They have not been moved to give greater privacy.
There was considerable confusion in the morning but it subsided by the afternoon. It is probably because the number of people arriving at the voting site was less.
Errors in the voting registry were identified and it seemed that the staff at the tables was unable to resolve the problems.

Closure of the Elections:

At the majority of tables more than one person was counting the votes. At some tables the party observers were also counting the votes and at others only the presidents were counting. Once the votes were counted the ballots were handed over to the party observers.
By late afternoon we could see how tired the JRV were.
We noticed that they were using whiteout on the registry and on the signatures. The whiteout was not in the box of materials originally delivered by the JEM.
There were too many party observers involved in the vote count at the tables.

Municipality of Zacatecoluca, Department of La Paz.

Installation and Opening of the Vote:

Everything is normal and calm. There is a great deal of colaboration between JRVs at the different tables.
JRV difficulties: The FMLN is wearing party colors.
The location of the voting booths does not allow privacy.
There is more than one party observer at each table.
Some tables were not fully staffed.
There are other Nicaraguan observers that are influencing the people.
The voting sites opened early between 7 and 7:30am.

The Voting Process:

Everything is going well. There used to be three voting centers. They are now combined into one. The street is filled with voting sites.
The problem is that many people are lost. They can't find their names. The voting tables are in the street and against the walls. Because there are so many tables, accessibility is difficult. The tables themselves get in the way. The location of the voting booths is very open. People stand on the curb and can see who the person is voting for.
As the sun rose the location of the tables was changed as they sought shade. This created confusion. People lost their place in line and others cut in.
Some people left before voting because of the confusion. Others, not understanding the system were looking for their pictures on the registry on the walls rather than their names.
One person waited on the wrong line only to find that he was at the wrong table.

The table staff took a long time to find the names or to look for them by foto rather than by name. Suspicion was raised when the process was so delayed. There seemed to be cooperation between the tables. The party observers worked well together. It is obvious that the problem is that the voters were poorly informed about the process. For example they did not know if they had to fold over the page, mark it with an x or an o. There were handicapped and elderly people that needed help with voting. They are a population that has been overlooked. The handicapped could not reach the ballot boxes. One needed help putting the ballot in the box. We saw a deaf and dumb person who was accompanied to the ballot box by a party observer who helped him vote and saw whom he voted for. It was not clear that in these circumstances whether he was permitted to watch the person cast the vote.

Some of the ARENA party observers wore shirts or hats with Tony Saca's image imprinted on them. It was not clear if this influenced the vote. There were not enough ballots during the morning. Some party observers gave poor directions to the voters about where they should go to vote.

By the afternoon the atmosphere was calm in general. There were no serious problems to be mentioned. This calm atmosphere was due to the decrease in the number of voters that came in the afternoon.

Election Closure:

There were several process used for the closure of the election, for example: some tables were cleared to provide more space for the ballot counting others were not. The DUIS were returned according to protocol but sometimes they were returned before or after the time indicated.

The staff working at the tables, members of the JRV as well as the party observers, seemed to be very tired. In general the ballot boxes were closed at 5-5:15pm. Those voters waiting inside were allowed to vote. According to what we saw there were about 250-300 votes per ballot box. All parties had representatives there at the time of the vote count. All the members of the JRV were at their assigned positions at the time of the vote count. All present concurred on the results of the vote count. As to violence, we did not observe any. We did not sense any abuse of power by the JEM or by the party supervisors who were present at the vote count even though they were not authorized to be there. All parties were represented. At many tables we noted that there were private citizens as well as party observers. Also one of the supervisors voted in the wrong place. His name was Luis Gonzales of ARENA. He was reported to the JEM who said they would investigate. As to whether they filled out the forms appropriately, we observed that everyone seemed to do it with care. We can't say if any party observer did not receive a copy of the vote tally because even though we tried to keep track of this process we can't be completely sure of what happened. The vote count was finalized at 6-6:30pm. The majority of the count had been completed by 6pm. We observed that the JRV handed over the final recorded vote tally to the appropriate people. At the end people stood in line to return the materials, the records and, we assume, the blank ballots to the JEM. The process was long and slow. The final official documents were sent by fax. In this municipality the winner was ARENA.

Municipality of Aguilares, Department of San Salvador.

Installation and Opening of the Vote:

More than anything we noted that the people in charge of the system lacked training because they were managing poorly. The mistakes that we witnessed could ruin the whole system, for example, at one table the corners of 50 ballots were torn off; the ballots were signed and sealed beforehand. These ballots could have been taken and used somewhere else, that is, at another ballot box. Members of the JRV were handed their DUIs before voting which means they could have voted again with the DUIs in hand. We also noted at four different tables that the corners were not being torn off the ballots.

The voting tables opened at 7:30am, which is an hour late. Speaking of order, it varied considerably. Some tables were orderly others not. Some were slow and at others the party observers were managing the table. Some lines were as long as 25-30 people which prompted some people to leave without voting. We were handed a piece of paper that told the voter which table and ballot box he was supposed to vote at. On the piece of paper it said "Vote for the FMLN". This is illegal. There is a lack of coordination. For example at one table there was more than one party observer.

There were some people signing the Final Count document beforehand. This should only have been done at the end because of unforeseen outcomes. We found one man with three DUIs and another who was voting at the wrong ballot box by permission of the table staff. One of the FMLN observers reported this incident to the legal counsel. The ballot boxes were situated with no privacy so others could see the vote. We have noticed some ARENA people giving directions on where and how to vote. At some tables the party observers without proper credentials or identification were attempting to give help. We have seen clearly the lack of training in the process which makes people suspicious and lack confidence. On the whole this voting process was better than the last one.

The Voting Process:

At one point we noticed ARENA transporting people to the polls through an unofficial entrance. However we did not notice any irregularities after this. We noticed that some people attempted to use false DUIs, but the FMLN observers intervened and these people were taken to the legal section. There were cases of people with worn DUIs where the name, number or photograph was illegible. They were refused the vote because of this. But the legal section intervened and these people were allowed to vote once the person produced another form of identification or the number was deciphered on the original DUI.

We noticed a big tendency by the ARENA observers to watch the voters while they voted. We noticed that at some tables, official staff left and were replaced by people without credentials or some indication that they were approved substitutes. The official staff were not very attentive to the process by the late afternoon. At the tables only one person checked the DUI. It was assumed that this was because the staff was tired. Each time a voter presented himself only one box on the registry should be checked off. We noticed that at one table up to ten boxes were checked off. There were also problems with crayons melting in the sun and becoming unusable. The melting crayon could stain the ballots which later could be used as a reason to reject the ballot. There were voter lists that fell on the ground without being noticed. There were people who tore off the corner of the ballots before they were handed out. There was evidence of FMLN and ARENA propaganda, plus party colors and labeled boxes all of which could influence the vote. There are people from the PCN calling out the vote which could be interpreted as propagandistic messages.

Closure of the Elections:

There were some problems in vote counting because some of the ballots were stained by meeting crayons. The steps in the vote counting process were not followed. Each person did it as they saw proper. But there was no evidence of fraud. Although the closure did not follow the letter of the oficial process, the group deemed it peaceful and transparent.

GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE SHARE OBSERVATION DELAGTION TO THE TSE

1- Improve the functioning of the TSE so that decisions can be immediate and appropriate before and during the electoral event.
2- Guarantee constructive campaigns not violent or slanderous of any party or candidate.
3- Identify a contingent from the TSE (free of all party colors) to assist voters.
4- Improve the condition and location of the voting booths to guarantee secrecy of the vote and assure that the party observers not be allowed to stand near the booths.
5- Do intense training of the JRV with role playing using scenes of the actual day of the vote, much like the TSE does.
6- Place the alphabetized list of last names at the JRV in a more accessible place for the voter.

Back to top