Ex-Marxist rebel eyes centrists in El Salvador presidential run-off

A former Marxist guerrilla leader who fell just shy of an outright victory in El Salvador’s presidential election said yesterday he would court centrists ahead of a March run-off vote and ruled out a swing to the radical left.

Salvador Sanchez Ceren (69), a top leader of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) rebel army during El Salvador's civil war, won nearly 49 per cent of votes in Sunday's first round, just short of the 50 per cent needed to avoid a run-off. He will now face off on March 9th against Norman Quijano, the conservative former mayor of the capital, San Salvador, who took almost 39 per cent of the vote and wants to deploy the army to fight powerful street gangs.

Seeking votes
To ensure a victory in the run-off, Mr Sanchez Ceren will need to lure some of the votes that went to Antonio Saca, a former president and right-wing candidate who came in a distant third on Sunday.

Mr Sanchez Ceren yesterday pledged to negotiate with Mr Saca, adding that he would reach out to smaller parties.

Mr Quijano, however, insisted the ex-rebel will swing El Salvador to the radical left and bow to Venezuela’s influence.

The FMLN candidate said before the election that he would seek to join Venezuela’s Petrocaribe oil bloc, which furnishes mainly leftist allies with cheap energy, but yesterday ruled out a swing to the South American oil giant’s socialist model. “That is an old wives tale,” Mr Sanchez Ceren said in a TV interview.

“Our model is based on what the people of El Salvador want. We will not just copy others.”

The FMLN turned into a political party at the end of El Salvador’s 12-year civil war in 1992, and it first won power in 2009 after it toned down some of its more radical proposals.

Mr Sanchez Ceren was vice-president in the government and his campaign was helped by its popular welfare policies, including pensions and free school supplies. The regional influence of Venezuela’s socialist government is set to be a major issue in the final race.

“The FMLN’s proposal is based on handing over national sovereignty to Venezuela,” Mr Quijano told local television.

Negotiations
Mr Sanchez Ceren said he would negotiate with Mr Saca, who drew about 11.4 per cent of votes. Mr Saca broke away from Quijano's Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) party after he left office, and it is unclear whether he and his supporters will back Mr Sanchez Ceren in the run-off.

The Universidad Centroamericana estimates that while about 60 per cent of Mr Saca’s supporters would likely opt for Mr Quijano in the run-off, about 25 per cent would go with Mr Sanchez Ceren.

That would be enough to give the leftist a clear win.