Presidential elections were held in

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

on 15 March 2009. The main candidates were

Rodrigo Ávila Rodrigo Ávila Avilés (born 25 June 1964) is a Salvadoran politician. He stood as the presidential candidate for the Nationalist Republican Alliance during the in the 2009 Salvadoran presidential election. Upon his nomination, Ávila also bec ...

(

ARENA An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...

) and

Mauricio Funes Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena (born 18 October 1959) is a Salvadoran politician and former journalist who served as President of El Salvador from 2009 to 2014. Funes won the 2009 Salvadoran presidential election, 2009 presidential election as ...

( FMLN). Funes won the election with 51.3% of the vote and became the first leftist president of El Salvador.

Candidates

The

Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, FMLN) is a left-wing political party in El Salvador. The FMLN was formed as an umbrella group on 10 October 1980, from five leftist gu ...

nominated

as its presidential candidate and

Salvador Sánchez Cerén Salvador Sánchez Cerén (; born 18 June 1944) is a Salvadoran politician who served as the 42nd President of El Salvador between 1 June 2014 and 1 June 2019. He took office on 1 June 2014, after winning the 2014 presidential election as the ca ...

as his running mate. The

Nationalist Republican Alliance The Nationalist Republican Alliance ( es, Alianza Republicana Nacionalista, ARENA) is a conservative, right-wing political party of El Salvador. It was founded on 30 September 1981 by retired Salvadoran Army Major Roberto D'Aubuisson. It defines ...

nominated

and

Arturo Zablah Arturo Zablah Khuri ( San Salvador, El Salvador, 1954) is an engineer and Salvadoran politician of Palestinian origin. He graduated from the University of Monterrey in Mexico, with a degree in industrial engineering in 1976. Zablah then earned a ...

. The

Christian Democratic Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

had nominated Carlos Rivas Zamora and Merlin Peña, but withdrew the nominations on 2 February 2009 after it became apparent that they would have little chance of winning the election. The PDC did not immediately voice support for one of the other candidates. In the same direction, the PCN, which had nominated Luis Tomás Chévez, also withdrew its candidate a couple of days later.

Opinion polls

A poll from mid September 2008 gave Funes 29.2% and Ávila 26.1%, while

Tomás Chévez Tomás may refer to: * Tomás (given name) * Tomás (surname) Tomás is a Spanish and Portuguese surname, equivalent of '' Thomas''. It may refer to: * Antonio Tomás (born 1985), professional Spanish footballer * Belarmino Tomás (1892–1950) ...

( PCN) got 1.9%. However, a poll from late September gave Funes 47.4% to 23.8% for Ávila. This latter poll showing Funes with a large lead is more consistent with polling from previous months. Later polls from 2008 showed a tightening race between Funes and Ávila, with Funes retaining the lead.

Results

FMLN won the election with 51.3% of the vote, while ARENA received 48.7%, marking the first time ARENA had lost a presidential election in 20 years. Of the election, Funes said, "This is the happiest night of my life, and I want it to be the night of El Salvador's greatest hope. I want to thank all the people who voted for me and chose that path of hope and change." Ávila conceded defeat, saying that he and his party "will be a constructive opposition." An observation team from the

Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS; es, Organización de los Estados Americanos, pt, Organização dos Estados Americanos, french: Organisation des États américains; ''OEA'') is an international organization that was founded on 30 April ...

said that the elections were held without any major incidents, although there were claims of Hondurans voting at a voting center in

Torola Torola is a municipality in the Morazán department Morazán () is a department of El Salvador. Located in the northeast part of the country, its capital is San Francisco Gotera. It covers a total surface area of 1,447 km² and has a ...

, Morazán. Several governments said that they looked forward to working with the new government, including

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

References

{{Salvadoran elections

Presidential elections in El Salvador

Presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...