San Salvador to be governed by a woman for the first time

After more than three days of tension resulting from the right-wing's stalling the announcement of the election results in San Salvador, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal was finally forced late Wednesday night to accept that the FMLN had won San Salvador in Sunday's elections. The announcement only came after the FMLN took to the streets to protest the TSE's illegal actions, a protest that was brutally attacked by riot police.

As of late Sunday night it had already become clear by most counts that Violeta Menjivar, the FMLN candidate, had won the election. However, for the next three days ARENA used its stranglehold on the TSE to stall the announcement of Violeta's victory, and many Salvadorans believed they were using the TSE's stalling as a way to buy time to prepare to steal the elections. Tuesday evening the TSE called a press conference to announce a winner, but it was after midnight that the ARENA magistrate and president of the TSE, Walter Araujo, finally appeared to announce that due to "logistical" issues they would wait until Wednesday to announce a winner. Shortly thereafter, Araujo announced that the difference in the tight race between the FMLN and ARENA was just 54 votes. Since there were 83 votes that had been declared contested, Araujo said the TSE would go back and open those 83 ballot boxes. At that point, the FMLN magistrate on the TSE walked out, refusing to participate and thereby legitimize the TSE's fraud. Salvadorans immediately reacted to the announcement, worried that ARENA, through the TSE, had already manipulated the ballots.

Another serious violation of the law that led people to believe ARENA was preparing fraud was President Saca's announcement on Sunday night that the ARENA candidate for mayor of San Salvador had won the race. Although Saca had been purposefully using his role as president to campaign for ARENA for months, that announcement that ARENA had won - when the TSE hadn't yet made an announcement, was a serious violation of the institutionality of the TSE, so much so that even the Organization of American States representatives criticized Saca's announcement.

On Tuesday FMLN activists began a permanent rally and occupation of the central plaza downtown, demanding that the TSE announce the election results. Late in the evening on Wednesday, with Araujo still insisting on opening the ballot boxes, the FMLN decided to march to the TSE headquarters to denounce the fraud. Despite the threats from the police that they would attack anyone who tried to get near the hotel where the TSE was installed, the leadership of the FMLN, together with hundreds of activists in the central plaza, marched in the dark up to the hotel and into a fire of rubber bullets and tear gas. A few hours later, in the middle of the night, the TSE finally had to announce that Violeta had won San Salvador by 44 votes.

San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador and the center of much of the country's population and activity, has been governed by the FMLN for the past six years. ARENA had pinpointed the city as a FMLN stronghold that they wanted to take away, resorting to fraud and manipulation of the voting system at every step of the way. The fact that the FMLN was able to win the mayorship of San Salvador despite all of ARENA's manipulation of the electoral process is a testament to the massive support the FMLN continues to build in San Salvador and around the country.