El Salvador’s presidential runoff was hung up Monday in a near tie between an ex-guerrilla leader and an arch conservative mayor as tension mounted over who would be proclaimed the winner.
Preliminary results showed Salvador Sanchez Ceren, the former rebel commander, edging out conservative candidate Norman Quijano by 6,634 votes, 50.11 percent to 49.89.
The tally was a big surprise as the leftist had been favored to win by as many as 10 percentage points.
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal said it would not call a winner until a manual count has been completed, possibly not before Wednesday.
The left celebrated victory for Sanchez Ceren and his Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front anyway, while Quijano, the candidate of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), cried foul.
Sanchez Ceren expressed confidence he was the victor.
“We are happy and committed to the country because we have no doubt that the results of the preliminary tally are going to be confirmed,” he said.
