(The following article is from the April 16-30, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

A youth observer reports from El Salvador - PV Ontario Bureau

     Latin America took another bold and democratic step forward on March 15 with El Salvador's election of Mauricio Funes of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). The historic election broke the twenty‑year grip of the right‑wing and pro‑American Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) party.

     ARENA's rule since the end of El Salvador's civil war has seen the mass impoverishment of El Salvadorians, the loss of their currency to the US dollar, and corrupt elections.

     But this time, as Tanya Portillo told People's Voice, the public pressure was too strong to silence. Portillo, a young Salvadorian Canadian who has grown up in Guelph, travelled to El Salvador along with countless people from around the world to act as a neutral international election observer.

     Voter fraud is very common in El Salvador's elections and has been used to deny the FMLN victory before, Portillo explained. "ARENA knew the FMLN would win this election. I think if ARENA had come out and said again that FMLN didn't win, the people were ready to fight for the elections, for the accurate results, and go to the streets," she said. "ARENA would rather the FMLN be in charge than people rising against their government. And they would rather lose with the FMLN on a short number than a massive number."

     Portillo's story began with a long plane flight down to the capital, San Salvador, where FUNDASPAD, the NGO coordinating 2009 Presidential election observers, is based. She was joined by several members of her family as well as youth and student activists from Guelph.

     "We arrived March 9th, and did intensive training, including how the elections work, a history of El Salvador leading back 500 years, a history of the FMLN, meetings with that party as well as the right‑wing ARENA."

     Portillo was struck by the arrogance of the ARENA leaders.

     "What they said was outrageous - poverty did not exist, Salvadorians are lazy, that's why they leave. They started to list all the companies they owned, saying that most of their workers are from Honduras, because Salvadorians are too lazy to work. They actually believed there was nothing wrong, when we could see children living in the streets. The country does not even its own currency but instead `gringo' dollars. You can't be neutral here, but I had to bite my tongue."

     On election day the observers split up into groups. By 4 am they had arrived at the polls, checking under the tables, inside election boxes, making sure everything was in place. Around 6:30 am the people at each table had the right to vote first. There were already line ups of people outside. Doors opened at 7 am and the station would remain very busy until it closed at 5 pm.

     Corruption is rampant throughout El Salvador's electoral system, Portillo said. Although voters have their fingers marked with ink, there are ways to remove it, like rubbing against a hard ceramic surface. Portillo saw one person vote twice. She also learnt about ARENA busing in people from Nicaragua and Honduras.

     "Because these people didn't know the community, they painted the sidewalks a colour, like yellow, to indicate were the station was. Any El Salvadorian would know where to go - they don't need directions."

     In another incident, many ARENA people, who were supposed to be stationed at polls inside the building all day, suddenly disappeared for half an hour. "This was suspicious," Portillo said, since they could have returned to their home communities to vote a second time.

     She quickly investigated and found there were around thirty people missing. Since the organization running the elections, the Tribunal Supreme Electoral (TSE), is largely run by the right‑wing party (and was also absent for most of the day) Portillo gave a list of names and voter IDs to a coordinator of the observers' organization. "They called back an hour later and told us that the people who had left had all voted at their municipalities."

     At 5:00 the polling station closed. Vote counting began. By 6:00 the ARENA representatives, who had been confidently sporting their Party's colours, started taking off their shirts, hats, and vests. "After the votes were counted, they just disappeared. It was just people wearing red, red flags, cars honking, people crying - there was a sense of relief, knowing the FMLN had finally won after 20 years."

     "The TSE was supposed to come out on television and say the FMLN had officially won [but] they kept saying it was very close. It wasn't until the third time they said the FMLN had won, but worded to make it seem like it wasn't certain."

     In the paper the FMLN had 51 per cent of the vote versus ARENA with 48 per cent. But with all the fraud Portillo and other observers witnessed, she thinks this was not accurate. "In the polling stations we observed, the FMLN won way more than ARENA." In her station the FMLN won 29 of the voting tables and ARENA took one. "In one city of Soyatango the ARENA did not win one single table in any of the stations - the FMLN won them all."

     At 8 pm 60,000 FMLN supporters flooded into the streets to celebrate with music. "They were taking over the capital with their happiness. People who had lived through the war, after years of struggle and fighting felt their work had paid off. It was really emotional seeing that. I knew what they were crying for, hoping the country would improve."

     Celebrations continued until 5 am.

     "I had never witnessed elections in that way - the election process was totally different. It was amazing to actually witness the people's enthusiasm. My Mum had never voted in El Salvador. The civil war broke out just before she was old enough. My Dad had a gun pointed in his back when he went to vote. Now the peoples' vote counted. It was very meaningful."