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El Salvador ready

for its fourth

post-war election

SAN SALVADOR: The people of El Salvador are set to vote in local and legislative elections on Sunday in which the right and left are in a heated fight for control of congress, marking the fourth election since the end of the country's bloody civil war in 1992.

More than three million residents of the Central American nation are eligible to vote on Sunday, when 84 seats in the unicameral congress, 20 in the Central American Parliament, and 262 mayoral positions are up for grabs.

Although there are 10 political parties participating in the contest, polls show there is a virtual dead heat between the two leading contenders, the former guerrillas from the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), and the ruling right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).

The FMLN could win control of parliament for the first time since it converted to a political party in 1992, after signing a peace accord with the government that ended a 12-year civil war.

The right has dominated parliament since 1989.

The electoral tribunal has prohibited the publication of poll results or projections until the election, raising an uproar of protest from media outlets which believed the prohibition would not take effect until Sunday.

Parliamentary races are focusing on the country's alarming crime rate, the high cost of living, and government privatisation programmes.

Some 17,000 police officers are scheduled to provide security at the nation's polling stations. More than 2,000 soldiers will also be on hand, as well as eight helicopters that will provide security for electoral workers and materials.ÑAFP