A presidential election was held in El Salvador on Sunday, 21 March 2004. The Salvadoran people elected a new president, together with his vice-president, for a five-year term. Antonio "Tony" Saca of the ARENA party won the election. El Salvador's constitution provides for a second-round runoff vote in the event that no candidate secures an absolute majority; however, Saca's 57% share of the vote meant that the second round, scheduled for 2 May, would not take place.
Candidates
There were two front-running candidates:
Antonio Saca of the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance. In his campaign, Saca embraced the free-market and pro-US policies followed by his predecessor and fellow , Francisco Flores. He was also the clear favorite of the Bush administration.
The election was monitored by 270 international observers and El Salvador's own Tribunal Supremo Electoral, an institution created in 1992 to reform and validate the country's electoral system. Some 17,000 police were on security duty during the election.
Foreign interference
The U.S. government under George W. Bush interfered in the elections by threatening a deterioration of the bilateral relations in case of a victory by FMLN's candidate Schafik Handal. Bush's Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Otto Reich, stated that the U.S. government was "concerned about the impact that an FMLN victory could have on the commercial, economic, and migration-related relations of the U.S. with El Salvador."
Results
The election had a 67% turn-out, the highest in Salvadoran history. The Tribunal Supremo Electoral confirmed Saca as the winner on Monday 22 March. Handal recognized Tony Saca's victory, but chose not to congratulate him. Saca announced his intention to seek reconciliation with the opposition FMLN, in an effort to heal old divisions from the country's violent past. Saca selected Ana Vilma de Escobar to be his vice-president. She was previously the director of the Salvadoran Social Security Institute. The new government took office on 1 June 2004.
