VFP Continues its role of election observaters in El Salvador
March 15, 2009
Report back written by Wayne Wittman
A resolution calling for Veterans For Peace members to
participate as International Election Observers in the upcoming 2009 El Salvador
elections was adopted by the 2008 National Veterans For Peace convention . Six members of Veterans For Peace responded
to this resolution and observed the January elections of Municipal and
Legislative Assembly Representatives of January 18, 2009. The following members represented Veterans
For Peace at the Presidential election of March 15, 2009: Michael Tork, Boston Massachusetts;
Heather Tork, northern California; Lane Anderson, Santa Barbara California;
Will Thomas, New Hampshire; Gary Ellis, Shoreview Minnesota; Wayne Wittman, St.
Paul Minnesota; Steve Boyer, St. Paul Minnesota, Lacy Wittman, Los Angeles
California; Joey King Nashville Tennessee; Will Sjoblom, Duluth Minnesota; and
Jim Lucas, Dayton Ohio.
These members were a part of over 260 members of the Centro de Intercampus y Solitaridad election observer volunteers who were assigned in over 26 election municipalities. After being trained in the election laws and alerted to what to look for, the observers were at the municipal ballot box distribution sites at 5:00 a. m. on March 15 to observe the distribution of the election material, observed the voting table set up, observed the voting from 7:00 a. m. to 5:00 p.m. and the counting of the ballots when the voting closed.
The voting outcome was noted to be historic as the ruling oligarchy since 1821 was defeated. Mauricio Funes the newly elected President thanked the International Observers for their effort to insure a free fair election. The VFP observers all expressed great joy at being a part of this historic occasion.
Wayne Wittman reports the most lingering disturbing recall of his election observation experience occurred at the San Salvador airport when coming home Tuesday March 17,2009. . He was sitting waiting to board the plane with two of his companions with an empty seat next to him when a gentleman about 50 years old dressed in blue jeans asked if he could join him. He asked what the group had been doing and after explaining what the mission had been he asked if the group were pleased with the outcome of the election. Wayne assured him that was not our mission but that the thought that change was needed and Wayne then asked him his reaction to the election. He was not at all bashful at telling Wayne he was not pleased with the election of the FMLN and assured Wayne that the new government had better tread carefully or they would be in big trouble. He said he could pull his company out of the country like (snap of his fingers) and put 700 people out of work. Wayne asked if it was right for him to have that kind of power and he then assured Wayne that the company had been a good corporate citizen, had played by the rules and the ARENA government should have put more money in education. Wayne again asked if it was right for him to have the power to put 700 people out of work. He then backed down a bit and claimed he would have to get some approval (which would be perfunctory). He then volunteered he lived in North Carolina and had served in the Army. When boarding the plane he was noted to sit in the first class section while the observers were seated in the coach section.
Report back written by Lane Anderson
March 14, 2009 - Our day tomorrow will begin about 4am as we have to be at the polling place by 5am. The votes will be counted and results transmitted by 8pm if we are lucky. If it is very close and there are a lot of disputed ballots we could not know for days.
Today we spoke with the party leaders and an NGO leader in Sensuntepeque, the capitol of Cabanas and the city where Wayne, Joey and I (three VFP members) will observe along with a dozen other observers from CIS. It was striking that Che Guevara was the most visible character in the FMLN headquarters other than the candidates and that Roberto dÁubusson was the most visible in the ARENA headquarters. I think this speaks to the need for a truth and reconciliation process.
The FMLN leaders did not seem coached but both said they hoped for a clean election but expected fraud. Neither expected violence from the FMLN but feared the ARENA would not accept a FMLN victory. They covered issues more than the ARENA leaders did.
The ARENA leaders seemed to have been coached as they had the same message about FMLN having a history of violence. When I asked today's leader about this he just said that the elections tomorrow would prove him right and it was why they would have extra police in the polling places and military directly outside. The police have assault rifles and are very intimidating. Both ARENA leaders in the past two days have insisted that they hope there would not be violence but they feared there would be. Yesterday´s told us if anything happens we should go the other way, letting us think he expected violence in the polling place. When I observed that there had never been violence in the polling place, he backed off and agreed but insisted there would be extra police anyway. This could serve ARENAs purpose in several ways. Anticipating violence and increasing police and military presence can increase the fear and inhibit voters from coming to the polls. It also could be a good preparation for the use of agent provocateurs to initiate violence as supposed FMLN activists and create chaos, further decreasing participation in the elections. This would likely benefit ARENA because the victims of the military and national guard are most likely to be intimidated by the military. ARENAs candidate commanded the national police two terms. ARENA commands both the military and the national police as holders of the current presidency. ARENA also has control of the voter registry and creation of the national ids that are used to vote. This could allow them to create quite a few voters from immigrants or create multiple identities for their supporters. Their nearly unlimited resources give them an additional advantage as they pay for the renewal of those national ids (called DUIs) for their supporters.
March 15, 2009 - My own experience at the voting table was great, the people who represented the two parties treated me and one another with respect and kindness. I think their voting procedure is much superior to ours in the USA as it involved about a hundred thousand citizens at the tables. As with my tables in the three elections I observed, people who work together for fourteen hours to facilitate democracy don't express hatred for one another. Hopefully the thousands who worked together for this victory for democracy constitute a beginning of the reconciliation needed. Their election laws should be reformed to allow transparency of funding and residential voting (people vote at places in their municipality without regard to where they live now...this makes it hard to get to the polling place in large cities). These reforms are now possible with a new government.
March 16, 2009 - FMLN won the presidency for the first time ever and El Salvador has its first non fascist government. The government has been in the hands of the ARENA party, founded by Major Roberto D'Aubusson Aubuisson since the peace accords of 1992. The major, trained by the US Army's School of the Americas as a communications specialist, was nicknamed Blowtorch Bob for his favorite communications tool. It was he who arranged the assassination of Archbishop Romero. The ARENA offices are filled with photos of him. The new President is Mauricio Funes.
He had led in the polls by between sixteen and seven percent but won by only two percent. This is alleged to be due to extensive election fraud on the part of ARENA, who had the mechanisms to create voter registries and identifications under current law. Busloads of foreigners were found with Salvadoran ids near polling places but were prevented from voting but no telling how many made it to the polls. We may find out after the FMLN takes control of the executive branch June 1st. There were almost five thousand election observers, including eleven Veterans For Peace. With less than three million voters casting their votes this was one of the most intensively scrutinized elections in history. The Salvadoran electoral system uses the citizenry to count votes manually. There are more than nine thousand voting tables staffed by about seventy thousand citizens, equally divided among the two parties. About another ten thousand citizens serve in other electoral positions. The counting and direct election is very participative and transparent and was totally peaceful and cooperative at the table level. That being said, it was a very emotional victory for the FMLN.