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El Salvador's former rebels claim victory

SAN SALVADOR: El Salvador's former rebels, in their strongest showing since laying down their arms in 1992, on Sunday claimed victory in key mayoral races across the country and said they picked up seats in the national assembly from their right-wing rivals.

"We're the leading political force in the country," said Fabio Castillo, general coordinator for the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), a former guerrilla movement that transformed itself into a political party after 1992 peace accords ended the country's 12-year civil war.

Castillo told reporters that the FMLN's count showed it gaining ground in the 84-member Legislative Assembly over the rival right-wing National Republican Alliance (ARENA).

ARENA currently holds 28 seats and the FMLN 27, with a handful of smaller parties holding the remainder.

Castillo did not say how many seats the FMLN thought it had won. ARENA leader Alfredo Cristiani said he believed his party, which holds the presidency, would still have the largest bloc.

Official results were not yet available late Sunday.

The FMLN claimed victory in eight of the 14 provincial capitals up for grabs in the mayoral elections.

FMLN incumbent Mayor Hector Silva won in his reelection bid for mayor of the nation's capital of San Salvador. Silva's ARENA rival, businessman Luis Cardenal, conceded.

"This is an important moment for the country," Silva said. A total of 262 mayoral posts were up for grabs in the vote.

FOURTH NATIONAL ELECTIONS

Sunday's national elections were the fourth in El Salvador since the end of the civil war that killed some 75,000 in the country of 6 million.

Turnout was light and there were no incidents in the voting in the coffee-growing Central American country where poverty and street crime -- vestiges of the civil conflict -- were top issues.

"Democracy is being consolidated in the country," President Francisco Flores said after voting in the capital.

ARENA was once linked to death squads but is now a pro-business party that last year won its third consecutive five-year term in the presidency.

The two sides have painted their differences with the crime issue, ARENA calling for tougher anti-crime laws and the FMLN proposing social programmes aimed at reducing poverty.

The run-up to the vote was overshadowed by street protests from a near four-month strike by public health workers that threatened to spill over to Sunday's elections.

But chances for peaceful elections increased significantly on Friday when the government reached agreements with the strikers as well as with former paramilitary troops who had threatened to hold protests during the vote.

Some 3.04 million of the country's six million citizens were registered for the election but opinion polls prior to the vote showed fewer than 40 percent of potential voters planned to cast ballots, citing disillusionment with politicians' inability to stem crime or improve the economy. -Reuters