Salvador Election Results Prompt Rebel Cease-Fire Plan


Indeed, Joaquin Villalobos, the leader of the Farabundo Mart 146&amp;gt; National Liberation Front (FMLN) rebels, last week proposed a cease-fire by the end of May. Until now, the leftist rebels have insisted that reform of the Army, the Constitution, and the country's judicial system were prerequisites to a cease-fire.





Contrary to election projections, ARENA lost its majority. President Alfredo Cristiani's party won 39 of 84 seats in the Assembly. Most ARENA candidates were handpicked by party hard-liner Roberto d'Aubuisson. The lack of a ringing endorsement of this extreme-right ticket, say political analysts, may mean the electorate wants ARENA to moderate its policies. Still, the success of two right-wing parties - winning a total of 10 seats - leaves control of the legislature with conservatives.

The socialist three-party coalition Democratic Convergence, led by previously exiled leader Rubin Zamora, garnered eight seats. Mr. Zamora's party gained more votes than the ARENA-allied Party of National Reconciliation, but the Democratic Convergence got one less seat because of a formula used to allocate seats. The communist National Democratic Union took one seat.

Two days after the elections, Zamora claimed "brutal and open electoral fraud" and displayed marked ballots found in a street gutter. International observers concluded that beyond widespread administrative "irregularities" no significant fraud could be proven. But, says political analyst Antonio Canas of the University of Central America, "you cannot minimize these deficiencies. A matter of 50 to 60 residual votes can be the difference between gaining or losing a seat in the Assembly."

This election was considered a test of the voting process. Parties of the right and left have their eyes on the 1994 presidential elections. Indeed, one of the incentives for securing peace now, says a US official, is to prepare for 1994.

The Cristiani government wants time to develop its market-oriented economic policies, unhindered by guerrilla attacks on the nation's infrastructure, he says. "And the FMLN," the official says, "can see from these elections that if it's going to make a serious run in 1994, it needs all the time it can get to build a national political party organization."

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