John
03-16-2009, 08:18 AM
The former TV journalist declared himself president-elect of the tiny Central American nation as a majority of exit polls handed him victory late Sunday. His only rival, ruling right-wing candidate Rodrigo Avila, shortly afterwards conceded defeat.
The win represents a seismic power shift in the poverty and crime stricken country, where former Marxist rebels have grabbed power 17 years after a devastating civil war.
Funes led Sunday's polls, which passed off peacefully, with 51.2 percent of the vote after more than 90 percent of ballots were counted, electoral authorities said.
The head of the ex-guerilla Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) pulled ahead of Avila, from the ARENA party, who garnered 48.7 percent of votes as counting neared a close.
"I'm the president-elect of the Salvadorans," Funes told a news conference in a hotel in the capital.
"Yes, we could!" his red-clad supporters shouted in streets across the country, clearly euphoric after having made three failed bids at the presidency since the end of the 12-year civil war in 1992.
"I want to be the real president of the real reconstruction of the country, which starts with the reconstruction of people," Funes said.
Avila, a former police chief and protege of outgoing president Elias Antonio Saca, had warned on the campaign trail in the polarized country that a leftist victory would turn the country into a satellite of Venezuela.
"I want to make it known to Mauricio Funes ... that in this close battle the margin of difference has given him the advantage," Avila conceded late Sunday.
Now a leftist party, the FMLN was a coalition of Marxist guerrillas who battled the government during the civil war in which more than 70,000 people died.
Funes identifies himself with moderates, such as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil as opposed to Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez, and is the first FMLN presidential candidate who has never served as an armed combatant.
"Our plan is to make El Salvador the most dynamic economy of Central America," he said Sunday, adressing a key issue for the country closely tied to the United States and expecting to be hard hit by the financial crisis.
Thousands of the 2.5 million US-based Salvadorans came home to vote in an election watched closely by the United States, which backed a repressive military government during the civil war.
The United States will respect the choice Salvadorans make in their election, the State Department's top diplomat for Latin America, Tom Shannon, said Friday, after several US lawmakers warned that a Funes victory would jeopardize US national security interests in the region.
El Salvador last weekend welcomed its last returning soldiers from Iraq, where it once had 6,000 troops. Its economy also depends heavily on money sent home from mainly US-based Salvadorans, which has dropped in recent months.
Funes has tough negotiations expected ahead in a congress where no party has a majority, despite his party's victory in parliamentary polls six weeks ago.
The win represents a seismic power shift in the poverty and crime stricken country, where former Marxist rebels have grabbed power 17 years after a devastating civil war.
Funes led Sunday's polls, which passed off peacefully, with 51.2 percent of the vote after more than 90 percent of ballots were counted, electoral authorities said.
The head of the ex-guerilla Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) pulled ahead of Avila, from the ARENA party, who garnered 48.7 percent of votes as counting neared a close.
"I'm the president-elect of the Salvadorans," Funes told a news conference in a hotel in the capital.
"Yes, we could!" his red-clad supporters shouted in streets across the country, clearly euphoric after having made three failed bids at the presidency since the end of the 12-year civil war in 1992.
"I want to be the real president of the real reconstruction of the country, which starts with the reconstruction of people," Funes said.
Avila, a former police chief and protege of outgoing president Elias Antonio Saca, had warned on the campaign trail in the polarized country that a leftist victory would turn the country into a satellite of Venezuela.
"I want to make it known to Mauricio Funes ... that in this close battle the margin of difference has given him the advantage," Avila conceded late Sunday.
Now a leftist party, the FMLN was a coalition of Marxist guerrillas who battled the government during the civil war in which more than 70,000 people died.
Funes identifies himself with moderates, such as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil as opposed to Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez, and is the first FMLN presidential candidate who has never served as an armed combatant.
"Our plan is to make El Salvador the most dynamic economy of Central America," he said Sunday, adressing a key issue for the country closely tied to the United States and expecting to be hard hit by the financial crisis.
Thousands of the 2.5 million US-based Salvadorans came home to vote in an election watched closely by the United States, which backed a repressive military government during the civil war.
The United States will respect the choice Salvadorans make in their election, the State Department's top diplomat for Latin America, Tom Shannon, said Friday, after several US lawmakers warned that a Funes victory would jeopardize US national security interests in the region.
El Salvador last weekend welcomed its last returning soldiers from Iraq, where it once had 6,000 troops. Its economy also depends heavily on money sent home from mainly US-based Salvadorans, which has dropped in recent months.
Funes has tough negotiations expected ahead in a congress where no party has a majority, despite his party's victory in parliamentary polls six weeks ago.