The pro-U.S. candidate in El Salvador's presidential election Sunday easily defeated a former Communist Party guerrilla leader, based on partial official returns. With about 48 percent of ballots counted, Tony Saca of the Nationalist Republican Alliance, or ARENA, had 59.8 percent of the vote, easily enough to avoid a May 2 runoff. His challenger, Schafik Handal of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, had 33.1 percent of the votes. Two other small parties took the rest. "On this day, Salvadorans have decided to make me their president, in the first round," Saca told a news conference. Saca took calls of congratulations on his cell phone from Guatemalan President Oscar Berger and Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos while making the announcement at a news conference before any national vote returns were announced. Exit polls and quick counts by the independent Central American University also showed Saca well ahead. The 39-year-old Saca, a conservative broadcast media businessman, was the clear favorite of President Bush's administration, whose officials suggested an opposition victory could affect El Salvador's remarkably warm relations with the United States. The Central American nation has contributed troops to the coalition effort in Iraq.
Saca's opponent, Handal, said he would he would bring Salvadoran troops back from Iraq and seek to restore relations with Cuba. Handal, 73, led the Communist faction in the five-party rebel coalition that fought military and military-influenced governments for 12 years before signing a 1992 peace treaty. Despite their differences, the candidates were born within two blocks of one another, both to Palestinian immigrant families from Bethlehem.
| Hope for the Paleos! Just get them the hell out of the Middle East. |
Saca's party has won three straight elections since 1999. The Front has lost two since first participating in 1994, though it runs the biggest city governments and has the largest share of legislative seats. Saca has embraced the free-market, pro-American policies of outgoing President Francisco Flores, who adopted the dollar as official currency, negotiated a free-trade deal and sent troops to help in Iraq. |