Salvador Rightists Dispute Final Vote Result

The far right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance won 30 out of 60 seats, falling short of a clear majority in the National Assembly in official results announced last week, and party officials said they would seek to have El Salvador’s March 20 election nullified.

Leaders of the party, known by its Spanish acronym Arena, accused the Central Elections Council of manipulating the official results.

Roberto D’Aubuisson, the former army major who founded Arena, said the alliance would petition the council to nullify the results, and if that is rejected, the issue will be taken to the Supreme Court.

The Central Elections Council said Friday that Arena won 30 seats, President Jose Napoleon Duarte’s centrist Christian Democratic Party won 23, and the conservative National Reconciliation Party won seven.

Earlier, preliminary official results had given Arena 31, and National Reconciliation six.

Arena emerged as the strongest single party in the final count, replacing the Christian Democrats, but its failure to win a majority could produce a legislative deadlock during Duarte’s final year in office.

National Reconciliation lawmakers were reported considering an alignment with the Christian Democrats. That would give them the balance of power on major issues and counter Arena’s strength.

In the outgoing National Assembly, elected in March, 1984, the Christian Democrats had 33 seats and Arena 13.

Mario Samayoa, president of the elections council and a director of the Christian Democratic Party, said the final results create an “interesting situation because no party will predominate.”

He said Arena would have to accept the results and “re-evaluate its positions.”

Samayoa said that while the computer count of votes for mayors in the nation’s 262 municipalities was not complete, it appeared that Arena candidates had won in 178 races.

The elections council report was denounced by angry Arena leaders, who earlier had said their party won 35 assembly seats and a firm majority.

On Tuesday, Arena removed its representative from the panel of observers of the three major parties overseeing the vote count.

Francisco Merino, the Arena representative, said the Christian Democratic and National Reconciliation delegates were trying to make a “game of the vote tallies in order to change the results of the elections.”

Duarte, a staunch U.S. ally, was elected in 1984 and is barred by the constitution from seeking another five-year term next year.

In the 1984 campaign he pledged to improve the economy and end the 8-year-old war with leftist rebels.

Arena based its campaign this year on the continuing conflict, unemployment estimated at 40% and inflation running at an annual rate of 40%.