AMERICA/EL SALVADOR - Elections 2014: the Church asks the newly-elected President for an "attitude of dialogue"

San Salvador (Agenzia Fides) - While the Agencies spread the news of the election of the newly-elected President of El Salvador, candidate of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front ( FMLN ), Salvador Sanchez Ceren, winner of the ballot, the Catholic Church in the country urges him to govern with the "attitude of dialogue and consultation" for the good of the Central American nation. The Bishops expressed themselves in a statement released on Sunday, March 16, in which, they say: "The outcome of the elections is a wise message of the Salvadoran people to be governed with an attitude of dialogue and national consensus, which reconciles us as a society and that leads us to reach major agreements at a national level, so that together we can solve big national problems".
The candidate of the FMLN, the left-wing political party, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, exceeded by only 0.22 percentage points that of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), Norman Quijano, in the first round of presidential elections on March 9, according to the final count of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.
The church is concerned: "for this reason, as Pastors, we appeal to the leaders of political parties, asking good will and good intentions to solve as soon as possible and in the best possible way the current problems", concludes the statement of the Bishops' Conference.
After 5 years, the FMLN continues to lead the country. The results of these elections indicate a situation of politically strategic balance between the two forces. This strategic balance will be confirmed or amended in the next 2015 parliamentary and municipal elections. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 18/03/2014)