March 15, 2009...the long awaited day

A quick update about tomorrow, Sunday March 15, one of the most important days there has been in El Salvador in several years: The presidential election. For the past 20 years (including all of the post-war years), the same right-wing party (ARENA) has been in power, and there is a great chance that the other party (the FMLN) could win tomorrow. A lot of people think that in the 20 years of ARENA’s time in power, conditions have at least failed to improve, if not worsen, for the large majority of the population of El Salvador—in areas such as poverty, violence, education, health, etc. Over the past few months, the campaigns of both major political parties have been intense—all over the medias of communication, in the streets, among the youth, etc. I have the same jittery excitement I had before the US elections, knowing that one way or the other, tomorrow is a huge day in the history (and future) of this country. All last week, I was in Morazan, in areas where, with no electricity or lights, at 7:00 pm, people are gathered around their radios listening, especially in this time of excitement. I know how much tomorrow matters to the people here.

I am back in the capital San Salvador this weekend to be an international election observer tomorrow. I also had this capacity in the municipal and legislature elections that happened in January. Tomorrow, however, I will be one of 2,000 international observers who have come to El Salvador (many just for these elections) to do their part to see that the democratic process is preserved tomorrow. My capacity tomorrow will be to keep in mind what I have learned about the “shoulds” of the election process and note discrepancies with this process, especially cases of fraud. As an observer, I can’t intervene, but I can point out discrepancies/fraud to officials. Moreover, I will be taking notes and will combine my reports with others to publish observation reports and evaluations. OK, just wanted to keep you in the loop, but I gotta go because the day begins tomorrow at 2:00am to travel to the polls to begin observing the set up of the polling stations. Here's to a fair and safe election tomorrow!!

If you are interested in more about the election, please visit the following blog link below. (Tim, I trust you won’t mind. I’ve been in the base communities so I haven’t had time to post much, but as you know this is really important tomorrow). This has more than a couple good links about the election: http://luterano.blogspot.com/