EL SALVADOR: RULING PARTY CANDIDATE TONY SACA CLAIMS VICTORY IN COUNTRY'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Record ID: 584913

  • Title: EL SALVADOR: RULING PARTY CANDIDATE TONY SACA CLAIMS VICTORY IN COUNTRY'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
  • Date: 21st March 2004
  • Summary: (U1) SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR (MARCH 21, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. GENERAL VIEW OF ELECTION WORKERS COUNTING BALLOTS, CHEERING 0.08 2. VARIOUS OF WORKERS COUNTING BALLOTS (2 SHOTS) 0.27 3. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ELECTION WORKER JOSEFINA MARIA CRUZ SAYING "The results are: Arena, 148, the FMLN, 125; 14 for the CPU (party) and three for the PCN. We are very happy. It's been a long day but we have finished very happy." 0.43 4. SUPPORTERS OF ARENA CANDIDATE TONY SACA CHEERING 0.47 5. SACA ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE 1.08 6. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SACA SAYING "Today the Salvadorans have made a very important decision and have decided to make me their president at the first round (of voting)." 1.31 7. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CELEBRATING IN THE STREETS (5 SHOTS) 2.05 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 5th April 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR
  • Country: El Salvador
  • Reuters ID: LVAEXJ1E3G7IG28CXMH6W4J0CVT5
  • Story Text: Ruling party candidate in El Salvador's presidential
    elections declares victory over former rebel commander.


    A conservative candidate claimed victory at El Salvador's
    presidential elections on Sunday (March 21, 2004) over
    an ex-rebel commander aiming to become the first leftist to
    lead the country.

    Even though no official results were in, conservative
    Tony Saca, of the Nationalist Republican Alliance, or
    Arena, said exit polls showed he had won an outright
    victory.

    "Today the Salvadorans have decided to make me their
    president at the first round (of voting)," Saca said in a
    speech at a hotel where votes were being counted.

    Television polls showed Saca ahead of Handal, a leader
    of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN,
    rebel group during the country's 1980-92 civil war.

    During campaigning, Handal vowed to pull the Central
    American country away from its strong alliance with the
    United States. He said he would withdraw the 360 Salvadoran
    troops in Iraq and renew diplomatic ties with Cuba, cut
    since 1959.

    Some polls showed Saca winning more than 50 percent of
    the vote, meaning a second round of voting would not be
    needed.

    The coffee-exporting nation is still divided between
    left and right 12 years after the end of a civil war in
    which Handal's guerrillas battled a series of U.S.-backed
    governments in one of the Cold War's bitterest conflicts.

    More than 75,000 people died.

    Arena, Saca's party, was closely linked at the time to
    death squads that stalked the country, killing thousands of
    suspected leftists.

    War symbolism was strong on Sunday. A gray-bearded
    communist, Handal visited the tomb of Archbishop Oscar
    Romero, murdered by rightists in 1980, in the capital's
    cathedral.

    "This is in memory of Archbishop Romero and all the
    martyrs and victim of state terrorism in our country," he
    said after lighting a candle at the tomb.

    Arena has fought hard to change its image during its
    last 15 years in power. Candidate Saca, 39, says he is too
    young to have been involved in atrocities.

    At campaign rallies, he has lifted his palms to the
    crowd in a symbolic contention that he is clean of blood
    and corruption. Francisco Flores, the outgoing president,
    has been hit by graft scandals.

    Arena, the party of business leaders and the landowning
    oligarchy, says it will continue its pro-U.S. policies if
    it wins the election. El Salvador broke diplomatic
    relations with Cuba in 1959 and does not even have full
    ties with China.

    The top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, Roger Noriega,
    has voiced concern about Handal. Salvadoran conservatives
    have suggested Washington could expel 200,000 Salvadorans
    living in the United States on temporary visas if Handal
    wins.

    As many as 2 million Salvadorans, almost a third of the
    population, live in the United States, most of them
    illegally. The money sent home by emigrants makes up 15
    percent of El Salvador's economy.
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