Leftist ex-guerrillas face test in El Salvador vote

President Mauricio Funes and El Salvador's first leftist government since the end of its bitter civil war faced a key test Sunday as voters cast ballots for mayors and national lawmakers. Funes, a political moderate with high approval ratings, has two more years as president in this tiny, densely-populated Central American nation. But his popularity does not necessarily transfer into votes for his party, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). At stake are all 85 members of the single-chamber legislature, who serve three-year terms, and mayoral jobs in 262 towns and cities. Polls show the FMLN, a party that includes ex-guerrillas, has about the same chances at controlling the Legislative Assembly as does the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), which ruled the country for two decades after the civil war. "I voted because I want to see changes in this country -- our children and grandchildren live just like us, afraid of so much violence," Mirna de Cordova, 66, told AFP. De Cordova showed up with her husband Roberto early to vote at a polling station on the outskirts of the capital San Salvador, only to find that polls opened more than an hour behind schedule due to logistical problems. Like many voters, De Cordova said she wants to toughen laws against crime. Around 14 people are murdered every day in El Salvador, population six million, according to government figures. In an improvised press conference as he voted, Funes urged voters to help him "guarantee that the changes that are taking place are strengthened, and not turned back." The FMLN has campaigned promising social programs and job creation in a nation with unemployment among one third of the population, while ARENA has pledged a tougher tack against crime and youth gangs, or "Maras." Both main parties "have developed similar propaganda... without explaining how they will deliver on their promises," said Jannet Aguilar, director of the Institute of Public Opinion at the UCA. The biggest single prize of the day is for mayor of the capital San Salvador, where ARENA Mayor Norman Quijano has strong support in his reelection race against the FMLN's Schafik Handal, son of a prominent ex-guerrilla of the same name. A distant third in the polls is GANA, led by ex-president Elias Antonio Saca, whose party's 14 lawmakers give the Funes government its majority in the current Congress. Candidates from six smaller parties are also running. The FMLN says it plans to build a simple majority with at least two minority parties this time around. The FMLN was founded by Marxist guerillas fighting a US-backed government in the 1980s. More than 75,000 people were killed during the 1980-1992 civil war. Unemployment and underemployment dropped from 40 to 36 percent during the Funes administration, though young people continue to emigrate to the United States. A staggering one in three Salvadorans lives in the United States, providing remittances of more than 3.6 billion dollars in 2011, around one sixth of GDP. Election officials have promised first official results by 0430 GMT Monday.