Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 25, 1994 TAG: 9404250090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR LENGTH: Medium
Caravans of honking, shrieking, flag-waving Salvadorans zipped through the capital celebrating the landslide win.
With about 20 percent of precincts reporting, Calderon Sol had about 66 percent of the vote, televised reports from polling stations said. Ruben Zamora's leftist coalition trailed with about 33 percent.
About 48 percent of eligible voters went to the polls, early returns showed. Poll-watchers said voting problems that hindered an earlier round of voting were fewer.
Calderon Sol, a two-time mayor of San Salvador, had been heavily favored over Zamora, a former leader of the political wing of El Salvador's guerrilla movement. Zamora heads a coalition of three leftist parties, including the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.
The former guerrilla organization became a legal political party when the 1992 peace treaty ended El Salvador's 12-year civil war.
Seven presidential candidates ran in a March 20 election, but none won an absolute majority. Calderon Sol outpolled Zamora by about a 2-to-1 ratio in that election, but fell just short of the 50 percent plus one vote needed to win.
In the first hours of voting, some voting centers had more poll-watchers than voters.
"I am worried that the polls are nearly empty," said Mario Valiente, mayor-elect of San Salvador and a member of Calderon Sol's rightist Nationalist Republican Alliance, or ARENA.
"Many may not be voting because they think that ARENA is going to win, so why should they bother," Valiente said.
Coalition members complained that ARENA poll watchers were improperly trying to influence voters, and there were mutual charges of campaigning at or near voting centers.
by CNB