SAN SALVADOR, March 5 — Salvadorans cast ballots yesterday in legislative and municipal elections that will serve as a test of strength of leftist President Salvador Sanchez Ceren in his final year of office.
Police and army troops were deployed across the country to provide security for the elections, the ninth since a 1992 peace accord ended a bloody 12-year civil war.
“The elections are taking place peacefully across the country,” but “there have been some difficulties” in staffing voting stations in some areas, Sanchez Ceren said after voting at a school in San Salvador.
“The process is a little complex and there won’t be very quick results,” he said.
At stake are all 84 seats in the single-chamber Congress and mayoralties and council seats in the tiny Central American country’s 262 municipalities.
The main parties participating in the elections are the ruling Farabundo Marti National Liberation Movement (FMLN), and the Republican Nationalist Alliance (ARENA), a conservative opposition party that is favored to make gains.
The two parties were deadly opponents during the civil war, with guerrilla groups under the banner of the FMLN fighting against a succession of US-backed governments. ARENA, for its part, was co-founded in 1981 by Roberto D’Aubuisson, a soldier linked to right-wing death squads.
‘Future at stake’
The elections will give a measure of Sanchez Ceren’s strength at a time when the country has been battered by violent crime.
“There are many deputies who are up for re-election who have done nothing for the country. That’s why you have to think hard (about who to vote for). Our future is at stake,” said Idalia Hernandez, a university student.
After a three-month campaign, the faces of the candidates are everywhere, their pictures hanging from light posts in towns throughout the country.
The new elected officials will take up their positions on May 1.
In the current Congress, ARENA has a slight majority, with 35 seats to the FMLN’s 31. Three other parties hold 18 seats.
That has forced Sanchez Ceren to negotiate to get legislation passed.
He has succeeded in getting the Congress to fund certain popular social programs like free lunches and school supplies for public school students.
But ARENA has blocked borrowing sought by the government for public works programmes, and forced cuts in spending in the 2018 budget.
Final stretch
Analyst Dagoberto Gutierrez says the government functions because it has “the maturity to negotiate, to dialogue and not to try to impose its will on a sometimes capricious opposition.”
“The government is in the final stretch. So if it wants to finish well, it must be agile and dialogue not only with the legislative assembly but with the other forces in society,” he said.
Sanchez Ceren needs the support of the legislature as he finishes his presidency to put through laws aimed at getting crime under control.
El Salvador’s murder rate in 2017 was one of the highest in the world at 60 homicides per 100,000 people.
And although that is an improvement over 2015, when the murder rate spiked to 103 per 100,000 people, El Salvador is still one of the world’s most violent countries, in large part due to the presence of the feared MS-13 and Barrio 18 transnational gangs.
Analyst Felix Ulloa says violent crime is one of the biggest problems facing Salvadorans, one that the opposition has zeroed in on.
“The government can’t just offer repression as the solution. It has to place its bets on prevention, the generation of opportunities for youths in areas that are at risk,” he said. — AFP
