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Elections Watch:
September 2008
Opening Day for Salvadoran Electoral Period Launched Two and a Half Weeks Ahead of Schedule
 In unanticipated news, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) recently changed the opening date for the electoral period from September 17, 2008 to September 1, 2008. The TSE maintains that it changed the date so the start of the electoral period could coincide with the start of the civic month and in order to be in an electoral climate during the IX Conference of Electoral Organisms, which took place September 3-4. However, some political parties understand the decision, made without complete consensus of the TSE, as a means of avoiding that Municipal Council elections are based on the 2007 census.
On Friday, September 19, 2008, the Electoral Registry was updated to show that 4,266,000 people are eligible to vote in the 2009 elections at the close of the voter registration process. This signifies that any person registering for a new Unique Identification Document (DUI) that is issued after midnight last Friday is not eligible to vote in the 2009 elections. However, the TSE has reiterated the validity of that decree that permits citizens to vote in the 2009 elections with an expired DUI.
The Electoral Registry reports 837,000 more Salvadorans than the 2007 Salvadoran census. Juan Jose Guerrero, president of the National Registry of National Persons (RNPN) stated that about 500,000 of those registered to vote are Salvadorans living abroad and about 100,000 correspond to deceased Salvadorans, which leaves well over 200,000 persons listed in the Electoral Registry without explanation. Xiomara Aviles, Director of the Electoral Registry of the TSE, stated that during the registration process, they were able to purge 10,386 names of people who had died, were repeared in the registry, or who had been sentenced in a judicial process and therefore lost their right to vote in the upcoming elections. Nevertheless, the TSE has not been able to purge 100% of the deceased from the Electoral Registry, and the reduction of ineligible voters from the registry still leaves more than 200,000 persons listed as eligible to vote that are unaccounted for in the 2007 census.
 Furthermore, the change in population reflected in the 2007 census requires a redistribution of electoral districts; however, the census does not become official until it is published in the Diario Oficial, which is the equivalent of the US Federal Registry. The Ministry of Economy in El Salvador has stated that it should become official at some point before September 17, 2008. That has not been the case at the time of writing.
The change of the opening date of the elections has allowed the government to avoid explanation of the inconsistency of numbers between the census and the Electoral Registry, as well as to avoid the re-adjustment of electoral districts. Some analysts state that if the Electoral Registry were to coincide with the census, urban areas, which tend to favor the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front), would have more electoral weight compared to rural areas. The Organization of American States (OAS) has expressed concern that by changing the date, and consecuently not correlating the Electoral Registry with the 2007 census, the Salvadoran government is violating the principal of equality among voters.
TSE Attempts to Quiet Controversy on Legislative Assembly's Electoral Reforms
 The Salvadoran Legislative Assembly passed Decree No. 502 on December 6, 2007 (published January 3, 2008), which eliminates the need of the signature of an election official on individual ballots in order to authenticate the votes on the ballots for the 2009 Salvadoran elections. Each polling spot in El Salvador has its own "Vote Receiving Board" or Junta Receptora de Votos (JRV). Prior to Decree No. 502, the president and secretary of each JRV signed and stamped each individual ballot in front of each voter prior to handing it over for the vote to be cast. Each voter witnessed the validation of his or her vote, and unused ballots were left unsigned, then counted and returned. Under this method, any ballot lacking the appropriate validation signatures was considered null. As a result of the legislative reform to the Electoral Code (Decree No. 502), and ballot cast, regardless of whether it has signatures by the president or secretary of the JRV, is valid. This reform has provoked controversy and concern by many Salvadorans and the Organization of American States (OAS). In order to quash any concerns over potential fraud, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) attempted to reinstate the signature process on September 11, 2008 by issuing administrative instructions for the voting process to incorporate JRV signatures, albeit without each voter witnessing the signature of his or her individual ballot. Eight days later and in response to controversy regarding the instructions, the TSE reverted their last instruction regarding the signatures, which means that the signature process will continue the same way it did prior to Decree No. 502.
The instructions outlined by the TSE may calm the worries of the masses regarding the signature process; however, it is important to understand that the TSE's instructions do not have legal authority to overrule the Legislative Assembly's Decree No. 502, which makes the signatures unnecessary for the validation of votes. Therefore, the TSE's instructions will only affect the voting process with regard to the signatures, rather than the validation of the votes because the law passed under Decree No. 502 has not been revoked. The instructions emitted by the TSE do not have the legal weight to overrule Decree No. 502 when it comes to determining the validity of the votes; all ballots will be considered valid whether or not they have the JRV signatures. Therefore, any signatures on the ballots or voting process instructions regarding the signatures are inconsequential, rather than a safeguard of free and fair elections in El Salvador.
To find out how you can help support free and fair elections in El Salvador, see the sidebar about SHARE's 2009 elections delegations!
- Researched and written by Michelle Petrotta and Anna Sanger.
*This update is the first in a series of monthly updates on the 2009 Salvadoran elections. Stay tuned for updates in October!
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