El Salvador's post-poll challenges

2004 elections in Berlin

Nina Lakhani has El Salvador's post-poll challenges for Al Jazeera. I have a few thoughts cited in the article. The first comment addresses whether some areas of FMLN/ARENA cooperation from the Mauricio Funes administration (Partnership for Growth, second Millennium Challenge Compact, and even resolving constitutional crises) will continue now that Sanchez Ceren has won by a such a small margin in an election disputed by Norman Quijano and ARENA and leading to their veiled threat of military intervention. I chalked up a lot of the heated rhetoric in 2013 and the beginning of 2014 to the campaign. I thought that things would return to "normal" after the election was all said and done. Now, I'm not so sure.

The second comment related a little to what ARENA has learned from the campaign. Unfortunately, while most people are calling for the FMLN and ARENA to compromise (and various pacts of the nation) for the good of the country, I'm not sure that is the lesson that either party has learned. With regards to ARENA, they made up a ten-point deficit from the first round and a fifteen-point deficit in recent polls to nearly a tie the FMLN in round two.

They did that by going on the attack against the FMLN, linking them to drug trafficking, organized crime, gangs, and Maduro's thugs. Some legitimate concerns in there but nothing that says we need to collaborate and listen. With legislative and municipal elections next year, attack would most likely be the order of the day. The FMLN, on the other hand, went all guerrilla for its transition team, including US anti-favorites Melgar and Merino, to help smooth the move from Funes to Sanchez Ceren. The transition team is different from who will eventually be appointed by Sanchez Ceren but these appointments might be an indication of what is to follow.

The final comment that I made related to the need to temper expectations.

"The opportunities for radical, revolutionary, transformative policies to turn natural disaster prone El Salvador into an economically strong, peaceful, prosperous country overnight don't exist.

"The best we can expect is for the government to leave the country in a better shape than they found it in."

Salvadorans, and most all Central Americans, obviously need conditions to improve as soon as possible. Unfortunately, as soon as possible needs to be counted in years, administrations, and decades.