(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Mauricio Funes is leading in the early stages of El Salvador’s presidential race, according to a poll by LPG Datos published in La Prensa Gráfica. 31.1 per cent of respondents would support the left-leaning Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) candidate in next year’s election.

Rodrigo Ávila of the governing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) is second with 24.8 per cent. More than two-in-five respondents remain undecided or would vote for other contenders.

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.

Yesterday, Dominican Republic president Leonel Fernández met with Funes in Santo Domingo. The FMLN candidate declared: "These meetings have been held with the objective of opening El Salvador to the world, to generate deep ties with democratic nations that work for the well-being of their populations."

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

Polling Data

Which of these candidates would you vote for in the next presidential election?

Source: LPG Datos / La Prensa Gráfica
Methodology: Interviews to 1,500 Salvadoran adults, conducted from Jul. 19 to Jul. 22, 2008. Margin of error is 2.6 per cent.

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