The current councilor claimed that on Tuesday they submitted writs to the TSE to review 17 contested votes, which could change the outcome.
Arcatao, one of the bastion municipalities of the FMLN, is about to fall, politically, into the hands of the New Ideas party, according to the current mayor, José Alberto Avelar, who has been administering this Salvadoran trust for three consecutive periods.
Avelar told El Diari d’Avui yesterday that according to the count of votes cast at the end of election day, the difference is one vote in favor of New Ideas.
The hope of reversing this defeat is put in 17 votes which were classified as contested. The candidate for whom the FMLN bet is not Avelar, the current mayor, but Bladimir Orellana.
As a result of this disagreement, on Tuesday they filed a writ before the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE), requesting that these votes be reviewed.
The last hope sheltered by the ephemelenists is that after this review, the result will favor the Front, Avelar said.
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For this reason, shortly before noon yesterday, the mayor stated, the TSE had not given the final results of this municipality.
However, by mid-afternoon, the TSE-enabled website to report in real time on the preliminary election results indicated an advantage for New Ideas over the FMLN. New Ideas got 819 votes, one more than the Front.
Municipal data indicate that in Arcatao, the electoral roll is of 2,680 voters of who usually 1,500 have voted approximately; but in the recent election, the mayor estimates that 1,650 voted.
DATA AND FIGURES
VOTES. According to the preliminary ballot, the New Ideas party would have won the mayoralty of Arcatao, by one vote.
“Ideology has not been lost”
Avelar does not consider that the flow of votes obtained by New Ideas means that the Front has lost supporters in the municipality or that among them the ideology has been lost.
Avelar says he is sure his party’s hard vote remains intact and that who lost his voters was the Nationalist Republican Alliance party, SAND.
The ARENA party had a stronghold in Arcatao, according to Avelar. This was the teosinte corner, a place that was repopulated by paramilitaries or expatrulleros. There has always been a polling station with about 900 voters.
Traditionally, says the ephemeral mayor, ARENA has cast 400 votes in this seat, but this vote only got 10, and the FMLN lost 60 votes.
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The official goes further in his remarks: he considers that the flow of votes that received New Ideas was for the millionaire campaign orchestrated from the central Government and the purchase of wills.
Avelar claims there were people who were paid $ 50 to vote for NI.
“It is being considered to gather all the evidence possible to present them to the Prosecutor’s Office, to set a precedent. Even on election day they were handing out tickets to claim a carton or half a carton of eggs (30 or 15 units), ”he said.
Chichilco effect
Arcatao is the birthplace of Maria Ofelia Navarrete de Dubón, better known as María Chichilco, a pseudonym she used in her time as a fighter and leader of the Popular Liberation Forces (FPL), during the armed conflict.
The former guerrilla commander is currently Minister of Local Development and in the presidential election that brought Nayib Bukele to the presidential chair, Chichilco also supported him.
Avelar admits that in the municipality, there are people who guard him with respect to Chichilco and does not doubt that she, as a communal leader, also influenced the results.
However, Avelar continues with the hope that the TSE must resolve by order that they have made him on the contested votes. “For health must be done,” he said.