2004 Salvadoran presidential election

2004 Salvadoran presidential election
Registered	3,442,330
Turnout	67.34% (28.77pp)
President before election; Francisco Flores Pérez; ARENA	Elected President ; Antonio Saca; ARENA

Presidential elections were held in El Salvador on 21 March 2004. Antonio Saca of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party won the election with 57% of the vote, avoiding the need for a run-off on 2 May.

Candidates

There were two front-running candidates:

Antonio Saca of the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA). In his campaign, Saca embraced the free-market and pro-US policies followed by his predecessor and fellow arenista, Francisco Flores. He was also the clear favorite of the Bush administration.
Schafik Handal of the opposition Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). Handal sought to capitalize on discontent over slow economic growth, increasing crime, and income disparities between the poor and the tiny elite. He pledged to raise the tax burden on the rich and to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba
.

There were also two additional candidates. However, pre-vote opinion polls consistently placed both of them far behind the two leaders:

Héctor Silva Argüello, the Christian Democratic Party–United Democratic Centre alliance candidate.
José Rafael Machuca Zelaya, representing the
Party of National Conciliation
(PCN).

The election was monitored by 270 international observers and El Salvador's own Tribunal Supremo Electoral, an institution created in 1992 to reform and validate the country's electoral system. Some 17,000 police were on security duty during the election.

Foreign interference

The

Schafik Handal. Bush's Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Otto Reich, stated that the U.S. government was "concerned about the impact that an FMLN victory could have on the commercial, economic, and migration-related relations of the U.S. with El Salvador."^[1]

Results

The voter turnout of 67% was the highest in Salvadoran history. The Tribunal Supremo Electoral confirmed Saca as the winner on Monday 22 March. Handal recognized Saca's victory, but chose not to congratulate him. Saca announced his intention to seek reconciliation with the opposition FMLN, in an effort to heal old divisions from the country's violent past. Saca selected Ana Vilma de Escobar to be his vice-president. She was previously the director of the Salvadoran Social Security Institute (ISSS). The new government took office on 1 June 2004.


Candidate		Running mate	Party	Votes	%
	Antonio Saca	Ana Vilma de Escobar	Nationalist Republican Alliance	1,314,436	57.71
	Schafik Hándal	Guillermo Francisco Mata Bennett	Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front	812,519	35.68
	Héctor Silva Argüello	Ana Cristina Sol	PDC–CDU	88,737	3.90
	José Rafael Machuca Zelaya	Genaro Isaac Ramírez Barrera	National Conciliation Party	61,781	2.71
Total				2,277,473	100.00

Valid votes				2,277,473	98.25
Invalid/blank votes				40,508	1.75
Total votes				2,317,981	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				3,442,330	67.34
Source: TSE

References

^ ^a ^b Dana Rohrabacher Speaks out on El Salvador Election, Clashes With Obama Administration Archived 2011-06-03 at the Wayback Machine

External links

[oc180news-1] Dana Rohrabacher Speaks out on El Salvador Election, Clashes With Obama Administration Archived 2011-06-03 at the Wayback Machine

[1]

v t e Elections in El Salvador
Presidential elections	1842 1844 1846 1848 1850 1852 1854 1856 1858 1859 1864 1869 1872 1876 (Jan) 1876 (Jun) 1887 1891 1895 1899 1903 1907 1911 1915 1919 1923 1927 1931 1935 1939 1944 1945 1950 1956 1962 1967 1972 1977 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 2024
Legislative elections	1928 1931 1932 1936 1939 1944 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1961 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1982 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2018 2021 2024
Local elections	1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2018 2021 2024
See also: Elections in the Federal Republic of Central America