Saca Declares Victory in El Salvador Vote
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - The pro-U.S. candidate in El Salvador's presidential election Sunday easily defeated a former Communist Party guerrilla leader, based on partial official returns.
With about 48 percent of ballots counted, Tony Saca of the Nationalist Republican Alliance, or ARENA, had 59.8 percent of the vote, easily enough to avoid a May 2 runoff.
His challenger, Schafik Handal of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, had 33.1 percent of the votes. Two other small parties took the rest.
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The 39-year-old Saca, a conservative broadcast media businessman, was the clear favorite of President Bush's administration, whose officials suggested an opposition victory could affect El Salvador's remarkably warm relations with the United States. The Central American nation has contributed troops to the coalition effort in Iraq.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3888918,00.html