In the first round on February 2, Salvador Sanchez Ceren and his running mate, Oscar Ortíz won in 13 of the countrys 14 departments and in 185 of 262 (70 per cent) of its municipalities. They also received 60 per cent of votes cast by Salvadorans living abroad. The ARENA vote, on the other hand, dropped 19 percentage points from the last election. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal and the National Register of Natural Persons registered 728,628 more eligible voters than for the 2009 elections. In order to encourage voter participation by allowing residents to vote closer to their homes, a system of neighbourhood voting was instituted that increased the number of polling stations and voting centres by 40 per cent over the 2012 parliamentary and municipal elections. A total of 2.7 million Salvadorans cast ballots February 2, representing a voter turnout of 64 per cent, compared to 61 per cent in the last election. Observers noted the positive impact of several steps taken by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal over the past four years to increase both voter access and transparency. A spokesperson for the U.S. Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) observer mission stated: This has been a much more transparent and peaceful process than weve observed in the past. When the results of the February 2 vote were announced, Sanchez Ceren thanked the Salvadoran people for giving FMLN a victory in the first round saying it signified a big win for the people. He said the FMLN would work hard in the coming days and called on supporters not to rest on their laurels or become complacent but to join in the campaign to ensure that the decisive first round win was turned into an even bigger victory on March 9. FMLN Secretary General Medardo Gonzalez said that the partys victory was the result not just of what people believe in, but of their actual experience with the benefits of the FMLN governments social programs over the last four and a half years, seeing that an important part of what they pay in taxes comes back to them in the form of benefits, among other things the free shoes, school uniforms, school supplies and daily glass of milk provided to elementary schoolchildren. Statistics provided by the government include: more than 160,000 people have overcome illiteracy; twenty municipalities can now declare themselves free of illiteracy; 3.3 million students have benefited from the school health and nutrition program: more than 2 million children have received a free glass of milk every day and 3.4 million have received free school uniforms, shoes and school supplies.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 15:43:04 +0000
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