Initial Observations,

Elections 2006
 

San Salvador, March 16, 2006

FMLN WINS SAN SALVADOR MAYORAL ELECTIONS

The FMLN won the mayorship and city hall of San Salvador for the fourth consecutive term that was on the verge of ending up in electoral fraud.   The election was won by a mere 59 votes in the capital city where 274,800 citizens are registered to vote.   For more than 72 hours the Supreme Electoral Tribunal was not willing to announce the results, even though it is their legal obligation to declare the results based on the legal acts of 687 voting tables in San Salvador.   The President of the Republic, Elias Antonio Saca, aggravated and polarized when he announced that ARENA was the winner on Sunday night, March 12, disregarding a state of law or the legal mandate of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to legally recognize the result.   This provoked 1000s of people to take to the streets since Sunday night and San Salvador was on the verge of riots the evening of March 15th.  The FMLN magistrates walked out of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, on Wednesday March 15th when the ARENA controlled Tribunal disregarded Articles 260, 264, and 265 of the Electoral Code on correct procedures regarding the final scrutiny and the legal base to review impugned votes if they are greater than the margin of victory.  

The CIS will issue a more in depth analysis on the elections and the process.   Some of the observations and concerns around the process include:

  • ·     Continue voter “transfers” where election workers and people change their residence on a false pretext to affect the outcome of local elections.

  • ·     The irregularities in the inscription of political parties – where the basis of the parties that participate or don’t were based on pure political interests and not based on the legal framework of the Constitution and the Electoral Code.

  • ·     Militarization of the countryside on Election Day.

  • ·     The lack of access to the National Register of Citizens for opposition political parties and its partisan control by the governing party.

  • ·     Lack of any political party law governing campaign financing, expenditures and procedures or primaries for choosing candidates.  

  • ·    Lack of a system of direct representation of deputies and city council members.

  • ·     Continued lack of a guarantee of a secret vote.

As the CIS we want to thank the 100 observers and 15 volunteers that worked to help set up the mission and allow for an in-depth observation of the process and Election Day in 20 municipalities in the country.   We want to invite people to start preparing now to bring delegations for the March 2009 elections which will elect the president, 84 legislative deputies and 262 mayors and municipal councils.  

A group of observers from this year’s mission has taken the initiative to request the CIS organize a delegation around the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Father Rutilio Grande, the first priest killed in El Salvador for his work with the poor and accompanying them in their struggle for social justice on March 12, 1977.   For this reason, we would like you to invite you next March (around the 8 -15th) for this important historical event.