San Salvador – Four out of five Salvadorans oppose gay marriage, the daily La Prensa Grafica reported Monday, citing the results of a new poll.
El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly approved the text of a constitutional amendment in late April that would define marriage as being between a man and a woman.
The poll results show strong backing for the proposed amendment, but debate continues because the reform must still be ratified by the legislature.
The poll, conducted by La Prensa Grafica May 20-26, surveyed 1,500 people across the Central American nation.
Some 54.6 percent of respondents said they “strongly opposed” legalizing same-sex marriage and 25.7 percent said they “opposed” such a move, for a total of just over 80 percent against gay marriage.
On April 30, hours before concluding its term, the previous Legislative Assembly approved the amendment’s text without the votes of the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN.
A constitutional amendment can be approved by the legislature with a simple majority of 43 of the 84 members of the Legislative Assembly.
To take effect, however, the amendment must be ratified by the next legislature with a minimum of 56 votes.
El Salvador’s new Legislative Assembly was sworn in on May 1, with the governing Nationalist Republican Alliance, or ARENA, holding 34 seats and the FMLN 32.
The rightist PCN party has 10 seats and the Christian Democrats have six seats in the legislative body, while a small center-left party has two seats.
The Legislative Assembly’s make-up could prevent ratification of the amendment, since the FMLN’s votes would be needed to hit the magic number of 56.
The Salvadoran Constitution currently defines a family as “the foundation of society” and says “matrimony is the legal basis of the family and rests on the legal equality of the husband and wife.”
The altered article says that “only a man and a woman, born as such, will be eligible to marry; that is, those who have the condition as such naturally, and who meet all the other conditions established by law.”
The constitutional amendment also says that El Salvador will not recognize same-sex marriages entered into or recognized in other countries. EFE
