Ex-rebel leads in El Salvador presidential run-off: poll
Ex-rebel leads in El Salvador presidential run-off: poll
Nelson Renteria
Reuters
4:14 p.m. EST, February 12, 2014
SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - An ex-Marxist guerrilla pledging to expand social programs is set to win El Salvador's presidency in a March vote by 10 percent over a right-wing challenger who promised a crackdown on crime, a CID-Gallup poll said Wednesday.
The CID-Gallup poll projected Salvador Sanchez Ceren, a top leader of leftist rebels during El Salvador's civil war, would win 55 percent of the vote versus 45 percent for his conservative rival, Norman Quijano.
The poll was carried out in interviews with 1,400 voters and has a margin of error of 2.7 percent.
Sanchez Ceren, of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), won nearly 49 percent of votes in the first round, just short of 50 percent needed to avoid a run-off.
He will now face off on March 9 against Quijano, from the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) party, who won almost 39 percent of the vote and wants to deploy the army to fight powerful street gangs.
More:
http://www.courant.com/news/nation-world/sns-rt-us-el-salvador-election-20140212,0,5590122.story
