(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - A conservative candidate is closing in on the left-wing frontrunner in El Salvador’s presidential race, according to a poll by Borge & Asociados published in El Diario de Hoy. 37.6 per cent of respondents would vote for Mauricio Funes of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in next year’s ballot, while 30.5 per cent would back Rodrigo Ávila of the governing conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).

Support for Funes has remained practically unchanged since June, while backing for Ávila increased by 7.3 points. 31.6 per cent of respondents remain undecided.

ARENA’s Antonio Saca, a media businessman, was elected in March 2004, garnering 57.73 per cent of the vote. ARENA candidates have won the last four presidential elections in the Central American country. Saca is ineligible for a consecutive term in office.

In September 2007, Funes became the FMLN’s presidential nominee. In March 2008, Ávila, a former National Police chief, won ARENA’s three-candidate internal nationwide primary.

The FMLN was once an umbrella armed group of left-wing revolutionaries fighting against the Salvadoran establishment. In the early 1990s, the FMLN was disbanded and became a legal political party.

On Aug. 9, Funes said he is worried that ARENA may keep control of the National Assembly after next year’s legislative ballot, saying that if he becomes president he will have to deal with lawmakers seeking to "get back" at him from the legislature and a party that will want to "block every initiative put forward by us."

The next legislative election is scheduled for Jan. 18, 2009, with a presidential ballot following on Mar. 15.

Polling Data

Which candidate would you vote for in the next presidential election?

Source: Borge & Asociados / El Diario de Hoy
Methodology: Interviews with 1,200 Salvadoran adults, conducted from Jul. 29 to Jul. 31, 2008. Margin of error is 2.8 per cent.

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