Elections

I learned that the blissful silence in our next-door disco last Saturday was owing to Sunday's elections for legislative deputies and mayors in El Salvador - no liquor sales are allowed for three days before an election and I gather there's no fun to a disco that can't sell booze. 

It was a beautiful thing to see my friends and neighbors dressed up in their Sunday best - it was Sunday after all - to vote.  Martha said that, after all, it is a fiesta day - and that's what voting should be everywhere where we are privileged to vote in free and open elections - which these mostly were, from all accounts.

The results were cheerful for ARENA, the largest party on the right, and dismal for the FMLN, the main party of the left.  Arena gained some seats in the legislature, the FMLN lost a couple, and lost several important mayoralities as well.  The vote was much lower - at about 50% of eligible voters - than it had been three years ago.   And Suchitoto will continue to have an FMLN Mayor - Pedrina Rivera will be the new Alcaldessa. 

For a fuller analysis, see Tim's El Salvador Blog.