El Salvador Perspectives

On the evening of his historic election as the first president from a leftist party in El Salvador, Funes came to the microphone in the Sheraton Presidente Hotel in San Salvador to declare himself the winner of the elections. After thanking the party members and family who had worked for his election, Funes immediately struck a note of reconciliation, calling to renew the spirit of reconciliation which had been the basis for the 1992 Peace Accords. Noting that ARENA had now "passed into the opposition," Funes also let it be known that he intended to listen to them and they would be "respected and heard." Funes indicated that he would seek to work together with president Tony Saca for a smooth transition of government. Funes struck the moderate leftist themes which had marked his campaign, assuring small, medium and large business owners that he understood the need to have a vibrant economy and a government which was respectful of contract/property rights. But...

8:40 p.m. -- TSE just released its latest tallies: FMLN 51.60% ARENA 48.40% (73% tabulated) 8:30 pm -- still waiting for the TSE to release more official results. ARENA was just on TV asserting that their data is favorable. 7:45 p.m. -- The TSE just released its first preliminary results: With 33.26% of voting table reports tabulated: Arena: 426,108 48.72% FMLN: 448,554 51.28% Stay tuned. 6:45 pm Channel 21 Megavision has a preliminary count showing the FMLN winning 57% to 43%. TCS shows the FMLN with 53%. It's not looking good for ARENA. 6:30 p.m. -- Preliminary results from the government won't be released for another hour. Looking at the Channel 21 and some results they are displaying on the screen, it looks like the FMLN and Funes have the advantage in the early counting. 5:00 p.m. -- The polls in El Salvador are closed. People in line to vote at 5 will be allowed to vote. Then the votes are counted at each table with respresentatives of each party and e...