(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Mauricio Funes, a former broadcast journalist, is a popular presidential contender in El Salvador, according to a poll by CID-Gallup. 41 per cent of respondents would vote for Funes of the left-leaning Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in next year’s ballot, down three points since March.

Rodrigo Ávila of the governing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) is second with 20 per cent, followed by Wilfredo Salgado of the National Conciliation Party (PCN) with four per cent. More than a third 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 May 8, Funes said he is worried about people in El Salvador still thinking of the FMLN as a radical Marxist organization, declaring, "The main challenge we face is convincing the public, especially the undecided, that my presence isn’t just a formality, that I haven’t merely arrived to apply varnish on the image of the FMLN. (...) We must convince the public that the party has moderated."

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: CID-Gallup
Methodology: Interviews with 1,200 Salvadoran adults, conducted from May 14 to May 19, 2008. Margin of error is 2.8 per cent.

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