askain

The Republic El Salvador, located in Central America, is a very small country of just 21,041 square kilometers and a population of nearly 7 million.

On Sunday March 15, the new presidential election will be very important for this country. The Electoral Tribunal has said that 461 centers are ready for the election.

The political campaign, very polarized, has been violent and tense. The government has 2,ooo soldiers available and 17 thousand troops that could be used to monitor the voting process and avoid potential conflicts.

Some 4.2 million voters, 60% of the population, are able to participate.

The two candidates in this election are Rodrigo Avila: party–Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (Arena), which has been in power since the year when El Salvador signed its peace agreement; and the candidate Miguel Funes of the Farabundo Marti Front for Liberation Nacional (FMLN), a group of left and exguerrilleros Communists, who have now given assurances to address democratic continuity, social and economic problems and also to employers, who promised his government would not compromise investment.  Some analysts have said that Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro may be backing Funes, whose campaign has been considered the dirty war.

This comment is well has substance, since Hugo Chavez also offered during his election campaign that he would respect democratic rules and to ensure private investment, but once he was strong in power he violated those promises and he has been shown to introduce a political model in Venezuela similar to that of Cuba. Fidel Castro also misled the people by ensuring that its political system would not be communist.

There is a proverb that says: don’t judge the book by the cover.

The candidate of the Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (Arena), Rodrigo Avila, asked voters to preserve democracy, but the country has serious problems due to a worn economic model. However, the country’s main problems are security and the unemployment. In El Salvador, 8 people are killed daily by youth gangs (“Maras”) that are considered to be disoriented social groups and criminals.

President Elias Antonio Sacra has invited international observers who are impacted by the violence during the election campaign.
The Electoral Tribunal wants the vote to be ordered and provided such that 15 days after Sunday, they will know who the new president will be.