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RIGHT FAVORED AS SALVADORAN ELECTION CAMPAIGN KICKS OFF.

Article Excerpt
By David Holiday from San Salvador

Following last March's legislative and municipal elections, in which the opposition Faribundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN) party surpassed the Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) in actual votes for the first time ever, analysts and pollsters heralded the distinct possibility of an ARENA defeat in next year's presidential election. Reacting to this possibility, ARENA quickly regrouped in an effort to keep its hold on the executive apparatus that it has controlled for the last three presidencies--almost 15 years.

For its part, the FMLN became overly confident, operating under the assumption that no matter whom they were to choose as their presidential candidate, electoral victory was at hand. Then, a wildcard was thrown into the polarized political mix that has characterized the postwar period--the emergence of a serious new centrist coalition, the first since the Partido Democrata Cristiano (PDC) held office in the mid- 1980s.

Four months away from the March 21 presidential contest, all indications are that ARENA's political makeover has been successful, while the FMLN's feeble and last-minute attempt at one has not. Both parties are responsible for making key strategic decisions, including the selection of candidates and policy choices, but access to money and the media, as well as the privileges of incumbency, have tipped the balance back in favor of the governing ARENA party.

The candidates

In presidential politics, as local polls have traditionally shown, Salvadorans vote the candidates rather than the party they represent.

The conservative ARENA reacted quickly to its disappointing showing in last March's elections. In an effort to moderate its image as the party of the rich, the party reorganized, recognizing the need to bring in new sectors to its executive council (Consejo Executivo Nacional, COENA) and distancing itself as much as possible from the administration of President Francisco Flores.

Using a primary election system for the first time, a new figure emerged, previously untested in politics--Antonio Saca. Saca, at age 38,...

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