The FMLN, the former Salvadoran guerrilla that ruled between 2009 and 2019, has been left without deputies

The February 4 legislative elections saw the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a former leftist guerrilla that led a civil war between 1980 and 1992, win. guardWithout winning a single deputy, according to the results of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) released this Sunday after a long final investigation.

After the conclusion of the investigation of San Salvador, the department that produces the most representatives in the country, the FMLN did not receive a single seat in the next Legislative Assembly for the period 2024-2027.

With 98% of the votes counted, current FMLN deputy Annabel Belloso missed being elected. In the legislature that is about to expire (2021–2024), the former guerrillas had only four representatives.

With these results, no historical FMLN commander will hold public office for the first time since the signing of the peace accord in 1992.

Also read: Electoral tribunal confirms Bukele’s victory in El Salvador with 84.6% support

two-man arena

The other political party that was involved in the conflict, Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA), managed to obtain only two deputies, one in San Salvador where deputy Marcela Villatoro was re-elected, while in the neighboring department of La Libertad, deputy Francisco Lira was re-elected.

ARENA had secured 14 deputies in the previous legislative elections in 2021.

The legislative elections were comprehensively won by President Nayib Bukele’s party Nuevas Ideas, a party that claims 54 of the 60 legislative seats.

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Both parties, which dominated Salvadoran politics between 1989 and 2019, lost more than 800,000 votes in this year’s presidential elections, compared with 2019 when President Nayib Bukele, who was first elected, was re-elected last February. .

corruption scandals

ARENA and the FMLN have been involved in a series of corruption scandals. In Arena’s case, its first former president, Alfredo Cristiani – who ruled the country between 1989 and 1994 – faces money laundering proceedings. Former President Antonio Sacca was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for multiple acts of corruption during his government between 2004 and 2009.

In the case of the FMLN, former presidents Mauricio Funes (2009–2014) and Salvador Sánchez Cerén (2014–2019) faced a series of corruption trials during their governments. Funes has already been convicted of at least three of them. Both former rulers sought asylum in Nicaragua and are protected by dictator Daniel Ortega, who granted them Nicaraguan nationality apparently to prevent them from being extradited.