San Salvador - El Salvador's former left-wing rebels appear poised to triumph over the ruling party in key mayoral elections and to seize control of the national assembly, preliminary results released by the electoral tribunal showed yesterday.
The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), which moved from a guerrilla movement to a political party after the 1992 peace accords, leads the elections with about 22 per cent of the vote counted, the tribunal said.
Mr Julio Hernandez, a magistrate of the electoral tribunal, said the FMLN captured 39.08 per cent of votes for the assembly, a slight advantage over the 37.92 per cent won by the right-wing National Republican Alliance (ARENA).