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International Elections Observation Mission: Day One
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
By J.R. Claeys
We arrived in El Salvador around 11:30 local time and began the journey through customs with hundreds of El Salvadorians returning home to vote in the presidential elections on Sunday.
The observation team is made up of 16 Americans and we've been assigned to three polling sites in different areas of the country. I will be at a site in San Salvador, the country's capital and the site where the ARENA party defeated a FMLN official by only 44 votes in January's legislative elections.
ARENA has held the presidency since before the civil war ended in the 1990's. FMLN has been an outcast party made up of former guerillas. Today, the FMLN has a one-seat plurality in the legislature and their first legitimate shot at the presidency.
The tensions here are high. Light posts throughout the city are painted in the colors of one party or the other. Cars have flags flying to show support for the parties, like the ones we fly on the way to a K-State game. Flags fly from homes, billboards feature Simpson's caricatures. It's a rare site. Just four years ago people feared for their lives if the government found out they supported an opposition party. In January FMLN supporters were killed in the streets. Today, the poll numbers are virtually tied.
In such a close election, every vote is going to count. The challenge will be making sure the votes are only coming from El Salvadorians and not from Nicaraguans, Hondurans, or Guatemalans who have been promised money or jobs in return for their votes. The rumor is that fake Voter ID cards are being made to show the photo of an illegal voter, but the name of a person on the voter rolls who is known to have died. It's a complex scheme that has not yet been proven outside of some reports from Nicaraguans and Guatemalans themselves who were stopped on busses coming into the country on election day in January.
Reports today indicate Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is meddling in the election by providing massive illegal funding to the FMLN party.
Over the next few days we will meet with officials to learn the lessons of the January fraud allegations and address the Chavez factor with the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. El Salvador uses a strict Voter ID system and uses registration security measures to keep non-citizens off the rolls. The only way around it is forgery. They also have campaign finance laws that prohibit money from communist dictators (or any other foreigners) trying to tip the election.
» Photo Gallery: Elections Observation Mission
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