Salvadoran Elections Council Rejects Right-Wing Challenge to Assembly Voting

After a dramatic declaration by the armed forces in support of “the will of the people,” El Salvador’s Central Elections Council on Wednesday night rejected a right-wing challenge to the weekend National Assembly elections.

The decision ended a one-day political confrontation between the Christian Democratic Party of President Jose Napoleon Duarte and a rival conservative coalition led by Roberto D’Aubuisson.

According to Christian Democrat figures, Duarte’s party scored an upset victory in elections for the National Assembly held Sunday.

D’Aubuisson’s coalition demanded that the results be thrown out because of what it called fraud by Christian Democrat officials and interference by the military.

“There was an understanding among the members that the request to annul the elections was without foundation,” Samuel Samoyoa, the Christian Democrat representative on the three-member council, said.

Members of D’Aubuisson’s Arena party and its coalition partner, the National Conciliation Party, held the other two votes.

All were in agreement with the decision. “We couldn’t disregard an entire election just because of a few anomalies,” Francisco Merino, the Arena representative, said.

The rightists’ complaint, if allowed, probably would have thrown El Salvador’s fragile political system into chaos. At the least, the Christian Democrats had threatened street demonstrations if the vote was overturned.

Military Denies Charges

The military, showing unusual public distaste for the right-wing maneuver, held an afternoon press conference at which Gen. Carlos Vides Casanova, the minister of defense, denied charges that the military had taken sides in the vote.

“The armed forces at every moment maintained itself within its limits,” the general said.

Vides Casanova, with some evident ire, noted that since Feb. 25, the army has lost 71 soldiers killed in combat, in operations directed in part at driving guerrillas out of voting zones.

A new election, as demanded by the conservatives, should not be undertaken without significant cause, he said.

“It’s hard for a party to admit it lost,” Vides Casanova declared. “We are making sacrifices on the battlefield, and we can’t let the whim of each party call for repeated elections as if this was a game of cards.”

He added, “You cannot lightly play with the will of the people.”

Vides Casanova was joined at the press conference by the entire military high command.

Fraud charges against the army by the right wing are unusual. Historically, conservatives and the military have controlled elections in El Salvador.

D’Aubuisson tried to withdraw the accusations Wednesday morning.

“At no time do we directly mention the armed forces,” he asserted.

But the complaint document signed by D’Aubuisson said the national police, which is a branch of the army, occupied the elections council office at the request of Christian Democrats.

Charge Against Air Force

In addition, supplementary affidavits accused air force troops of kicking out rightist poll watchers from their stations in a San Salvador suburb.

In all, the charges included vote-buying with U.S. aid money, ballot-stuffing, the use of government offices to pressure voters and threats on the lives of right-wing party officials.

Election council officials said the allegations will be taken up next week on a case-by-case basis. No official election results are expected to be announced until late this week.

Based on results collected from polling places, Duarte has claimed that his Christian Democrats won 33 of 60 seats in the National Assembly.

According to Duarte’s figures, D’Aubuisson’s Arena party won 13 seats while the National Conciliation Party took 12. Two minor parties split the remaining pair of seats.

The Christian Democrats also won a large majority of town hall elections.

The results presumably will give Duarte, who defeated D’Aubuisson in a runoff presidential election last year, power to push human rights reforms and economic programs blocked by the previously conservative majority. He may also more vigorously pursue peace talks with leftist guerrillas trying to overthrow the government.

U.S. Embassy officials here said they saw no indication of fraud in the voting. With millions of dollars in aid, the United States supports the government and military against a Marxist-led insurgency.