SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — A leftist television journalist claimed victory in presidential elections Sunday after a preliminary count showed him poised to lead a party of former guerrillas to power for the first time since a bloody civil war ended 17 years ago.
Mauricio Funes, plucked from outside the ranks of the rebel Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, appears likely to add to a string of leftist victories in Latin America at a time of uncertainty over how President Barack Obama will approach the region.
With 90 percent of the vote counted late Sunday, Funes had 51 percent, compared with 49 percent for Rodrigo Avila of the ruling conservative Arena party, said Walter Araujo, president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. He did not proclaim a winner and said final results would be revealed this week.
But Avila conceded late Sunday night, and Funes declared himself president-elect and promised to unite the country after one of the most polarizing campaigns since the 12-year war that killed 75,000 people.
“This is the happiest night of my life, and I want it to be the night of El Salvador’s greatest hope,” Funes said. “I want to thank all the people who voted for me and chose that path of hope and change.”
Funes, 49, promises to crack down on big businesses that he says exploit government complacency to evade taxes. He hopes to capitalize on discontent with two decades of Arena party rule that have brought economic growth but have done little to redress social inequalities.
Avila, 44, a former police chief with a boyish grin, was trying to bring Arena to its fifth straight presidential victory. He warned that an FMLN victory would send El Salvador down a communist path and threaten the country’s warm relations with the United States.
Those ties saw El Salvador keep troops in Iraq longer than any other Latin American country and become a hub of regional cooperation with Washington against drug trafficking. The country’s economy depends on billions of dollars sent home by 2.5 million Salvadorans who live in the United States.
