I am also an accredited TSE observer here in El Salvador, traveling as a member of the oberserver team from the Yale International Relations Association. Here is an update on the election so far (during this account, I was stationed at the Radisson as an international observer):

The election for the alcaldia - mayor - of San Salvador, where 35% of the country lives, was very close. At a preliminary count, there were only 59 votes out of roughly 132,000 votes cast seperating the FMLN and ARENA candidates. There were 83 contested ballots - enough to change the outcome of the election. The FMLN began to protest that the Tribunal had not declared a final result, and protests in the city center grew to over 5,000 last night. When the preliminary results were announced, the protest marched from the city center to the Radisson, where votes were being counted. The FMLN believed that ARENA would engage in electoral fraud, and broke into the press conference that announced the preliminary results. The TSE scheduled a press conference for 8PM to open the boxes that contained the contested ballots and count them on national television. Unfortunately, the protest at the Radisson was too violent for the ballots to be safely transported to hotel to start the press conference on time. Protestors used fireworks and threw stones at police who were standing behind barbed-wire barricades that protected the hotel. The police used tear gas to break up the crowd around 9:45PM. The hotel had several open areas so the tear gas began to affect even some of the journalists who stayed inside the hotel. At roughly 10:30, the press conference began with the official counting of the contested ballots. Although several of the contested votes were declared as ARENA votes, there were not enough to change the outcome of the election. At 1:14AM, it became mathematically impossible for ARENA to win, but the counting of contested ballots continued until 3:30AM. This morning, ARENA officially conceded the election to Violeta Mejivar, the FLMN candidate for alcaldia.

Watching this process unfold reinforced the critical importance of transparency in elections. Many other oberservers believed that the protests grew so large and violent because the TSE waited longer than necessary to officially offer the preliminary result that Mejivar led by 59 votes. It is not clear to me from the electoral code that the TSE was obligated to provide that result until one week after the election (March 19). Having visited the plaza where the FMLN protests were held continuously from Monday mid-day until the end of the celebration last night, I can understand the TSE´s desire not to declare a preliminary winner if there is a serious potential of violence should the preliminary result change. Any change in the outcome after the preliminary results would have almost certainly led to more violent protests from the hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of FMLN protestors that took to the streets last night.

Watching the 83 contested ballots counted on national television, with a team of international observers, including myself, in the room was an important step towards transparency in the electoral process. As Mike pointed out in his story, the electoral process before and after Election Day was very difficult to observe, and the lack of transparency reinforced concerns about ARENA´s willingness to hold fair elections. Hopefully, last night´s display of transparency will lead to further steps including opening the voter registry to the public before Election Day and providing access to more international oberservers for the final scrutiny of ballots.

The elections in El Salvador in the last week helped to consolidate the democracy into very strong parties, the FMLN and ARENA. Another obersver´s assessment of ARENA as "ultranationalist" is fair, and they have taken steps to privatize many industries, including water service in some areas. On the other side, the FMLN views Fidel Castro´s Cuba as a model to follow, and their rhetoric is laced with talk of revolution. To consider that the democracy is consolidating into one ultranationalist and one communist party is a concerning situation for the country. Both parties work hard to portray their opponents as extremists, which only reinforces the differences between the parties.

On Election Day, which I observed at the Olocuilta municipality in the department of La Paz, the polling place resembled a town fair, with hundreds of people milling about polling locations throughout the day. That day, there were roughly 90,000 people, out of a population of roughly 8 million, engaged in managing the polls, counting the ballots, and overseeing the process. For El Salvador, the widespread commitment to political involvement in democratic elections is heartening, but I cannot help but think that many people are involved because the parties are so violently opposed. Nonetheless, at the local polling stations, there were numerous instances when FMLN, ARENA, and PCN (also very nationalist) representatives worked together, discussed problems, and reached consensus. Sure, there was plenty of shouting and screaming, but that´s often part and parcel of any democratic election. What´s more important is that at the local level there are some prospects that these parties can step back from their extreme differences and find common ground.