By Nelson Renteria
SAN SALVADOR, May 28 (Reuters) – El Salvador’s leftist
Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation, which has ruled
the central American nation since 2009, is leading the race to
win February’s presidential election, a survey showed on
Tuesday.
The survey, conducted by the Central American Jesuit
University, said 44 percent of 1,277 of respondents would vote
for President Mauricio Funes’ Farabundo Marti Front for National
Liberation, known as the FMLN.
One in four of those polled said they would back the
right-wing opposition Nationalist Republican Alliance, known as
ARENA, and 12 percent for the conservative Grand Alliance for
National Unity, or GANA, according to the poll, which was
conducted in early May.
The survey showed a closer race when voters were asked about
their preferences for individual candidates.
FMLN candidate Salvador Sanchez Ceren, the vice president
and a former guerilla commander, had 36 percent support. Behind
him was former president and GANA candidate Antonio Saca with 28
percent while Norman Quijano of ARENA stood at 24.9 percent.
The presidential election is on Feb. 2 with a second round
on March 9 if no candidate wins more than half the votes.
Funes won the presidency in March 2009 after 20 years of
ARENA rule, promising to combat crime, generate jobs and reduce
high levels of poverty. After the party’s defeat, some ARENA
members, including Saca, split off to form GANA.
(Writing by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Bill Trott)
