CRIPDES Regional Support, International Meddling, Sister Cities
CRIPDES Press Release Concerning March 9th Elections
Given the electoral events of March 9, 2014:
The Association for the Development of El Salvador, CRIPDES, hereby congratulates the Salvadoran people for exemplary behavior demonstrated during the civic party March 9, 2014, when we celebrated the presidential elections in our country .
This civic celebration affirms, once again, the democratic commitment of our people and our desire to live in a culture of peace and respect for civil liberties, political and social rights.
As an organization that has worked hard to promote civic participation since the Peace Accords of 1992 , we believe that democratic institutions have been strengthened through elections that have consolidated political alternatives.
Given the events that have erupted after the results of the elections on March 9, we declare:
1. We join the opinions of various International Observer delegations, the Office of the Human Rights Attorney, the Office of the Attorney General , the OAS and other institutions and individuals in congratulating the Supreme Electoral Tribunal for its transparency, adherence to the law, and the responsibility with which they played their role in ensuring the election results.
2 . We call on the Attorney General’s Office to act according to the law to those who insist on provoking an atmosphere of destabilization to achieve their electoral goals.
3. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal, has announced preliminary results, with 99.87% of votes counted and only 14 unprocessed vote receiving forms remaining, with the FMLN with 50.11 % of the vote versus 49.89 % for ARENA, which is a difference of 6,634. With this data, it can be concluded that the trend is irreversible, so the win goes to the FMLN. We take this opportunity to congratulate the presidential ticket Mr. Salvador Sanchez Ceren and Mr. Oscar Ortiz as president and vice president of El Salvador beginning in June this year . We call on the ARENA party to respect the results, because according to the electoral code, in the second round a candidate can win by just one vote.
4. We categorically reject the aggressive attitude of political leaders who insist on promoting a culture of fear, calling for military intervention and violence against results unfavorable to their political aspirations. This attitude creates an atmosphere of tension, arrogance and political and democratic irresponsibility that seeks to create confusion in the public about the election results published by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal that favors the FMLN.
5 . We call on the Salvadoran population to be alert and to organize to defend the democratic institutions of our country and its political will , which is of the people, just, sovereign and democratic .
6. We call on the international community to stay informed of the developing situation amidst the insistent pronouncements and destabilizing actions that ARENA is performing against the country’s institutions, especially the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, because the election results do not favor them . ARENA suggests that there was fraud, but can not prove it, even though they are part of all temporary and permanent electoral bodies established by the Electoral Code that they passed in the Legislature.
7. Finally CRIPDES calls to resolve any dispute over the election results of March 9 democratically, peacefully and through established legal channels.
San Salvador, March 12, 2014
