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 Salvador Sanchez Ceren of the ruling Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front (FMLN), which as a rebel group fought a string of
U.S.-backed governments in the 1980-92 civil war, won 50.11 percent
support in Sunday's election, preliminary results showed.
Challenger Norman Quijano, the 67-year-old former mayor of San
Salvador and candidate of the right-wing Nationalist Republican
Alliance (Arena) party, had 49.89 percent support. He claimed fraud
and insisted he was the real winner.
Just 6,634 votes separated them, raising the prospect of legal
challenges to the result and a weak mandate for the eventual winner.
The FMLN and Arena — founded by the late Roberto D'Aubuisson, a
reputed death squad leader — were fierce enemies during the civil
war that killed about 75,000 people. El Salvador remains polarized
between left and right so Quijano's claim that he won the election
immediately raised tensions.
He accused the election tribunal of corruption and hinted at foul
play.
"We are not going to allow fraud...We are 100 percent convinced that
we have won," he said. "They are not going to steal this victory. We
will fight, if necessary with our lives."
The election authority earlier said Sanchez Ceren's lead was
undisputable but did not formally declare him the winner, saying it
needed to review challenges to some ballots and was waiting for a
definitive vote count.
Sanchez Ceren claimed victory after the preliminary results showed
him winning and he promised to govern for workers and business
leaders alike.
"We are going to govern for everyone, for those who voted for us,
and those who did not," Sanchez Ceren told supporters.
Sanchez Ceren won 49 percent of the vote in the first round of
voting last month, 10 percentage points more than Quijano and just
shy of the majority needed to avoid a run-off. He had been the clear
favorite to win heading into Sunday's vote.
The tight vote will force the eventual winner to tread a more
moderate line, said Javier Oliva, a political scientist at the
National Autonomous University of Mexico, particularly with
congressional elections due in 2015.
"They will have to be more prudent," he said. "It could provide
significant stability in institutional terms."
VENEZUELA THREAT
Quijano picked up support from moderate conservatives in the last
month by portraying Sanchez Ceren as a communist with blood on his
hands who would veer hard to the left and impose radical policies.
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After initially campaigning on a proposal to use the army to fight
street gangs, or maras, Quijano changed strategy after the first
round and instead warned that Sanchez Ceren would follow the path of
Venezuela's socialist government, which has taken over private
businesses.
"He has promised he will clean up the maras, create jobs and will
not allow others to send El Salvador down the road of Venezuela,"
said Marina Perez, a housewife who voted for Quijano on Sunday after
backing another conservative contender in the first round.
A carpenter's ninth son, Sanchez Ceren was a rural schoolteacher
before joining the FMLN guerrilla movement, and he then rose to lead
one of its five main factions during the war.
Along with other FMLN leaders, he has moderated his policies since
the peace accords were signed in 1992 and the rebel group became a
political party.
If confirmed, Sanchez Ceren's victory gives the FMLN a second
consecutive term. The affable, media-shy 69-year-old has said he
will build on its social programs, which include a glass of milk a
day for children and free school uniforms, shoes and supplies.
In a country where a third of people live in poverty and many rely
on money sent by relatives living in the United States, the FMLN's
social programs are popular.
The party first took the presidency at the last election in 2009
when Mauricio Funes, a prominent journalist who had no role in the
war, ran as its candidate. Under the FMLN, the government says the
poverty rate has fallen from 40 percent to 29 percent.
Its welfare policies have, however, contributed to a sharp rise in
the country's debt, and economic growth has been weak.
(Additional reporting by Noe Torres in San Salvador and Dave Graham,
Miguel Gutierrez, Alexandra Alper and Julia Symmes Cobb, writing by
Simon Gardner, editing by Kieran Murray and Angus MacSwan)
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