The following is a translation of a press statement issued by the Salvadoran Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE)
At 1:50am on March 13 the Salvadoran Supreme Electoral Tribunal announced the results of the second round of the 2014 presidential elections.
The president of the TSE, Eugenio Chicas, divulged the results to an audience that stayed through the end of the count, many of whom were journalists waiting in the disclosure room.
After the final count, the data approved by the collegial body with the unanimous support of the TSE is the following:
The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) received 1,495,815 votes, representing 50.11% of the vote; the National Republican Alliance (ARENA) received 1,489,451 votes, representing 49.89% of the vote. The total number of valid votes was 2,985,266 with a difference of 6,364 between the two parties.
In their message they did not fail to acknowledge the enormous help of many international organizations, observer delegations, national organizations, the Electoral Supervisory Board, the Attorney General of the Republic, the Human Rights Ombudsman, the technicians, clerks, the press for their many hours of work, the contending political parties, the union of the TSE, the workers, and the collegial body, “We feel very satisfied with the work that has been accomplished, which has not been easy, there were distortions of information due to the way in which the data was entered.”
“There was much political tension, this means that there were some departments that did not work at the same rate. This, without doubt, caused the anxiety of the long process. Nevertheless, we are satisfied with the agreement between the preliminary and final count.”
In this electoral process the TSE highlights the quality, the transparency, the safety, speed, and certainty that was in the first and final scrutiny of the vote.
