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Proceso 1182
February 22, 2006
ISSN 0259-9864
Editorial: Excess of electoral politics?
Politics: Too many doubts about elections (I)
Economy: The legislative platform of CD-FDR-PPSC coalition
Excess of electoral politics?
In El Salvador, electoral politics never stop. Practically, there is no time without campaign. There are many people who feel glad with this constant politicization of social life. This evidences, they argue, the good health of Salvadoran democracy, because periodical elections are its better expression. Who think in that way not only celebrate euphorically electoral times, but are willing to fully participate in them before the legal time to start campaigns. However, there are many people who turned this permanent electoral campaign in a golden rule for their public and private behavior: the entrepreneurial and politic leaders of ARENA, who have transmitted their militants a spirit of crusade, that practically leads them to be permanently ready to war.
Other parties start their campaigns —because of their lack of resources and
perhaps for their lack of vision— when electoral times start. In ARENA, an
electoral campaign goes after the other, without caring about the nature of each
election and the time between them. Of course that in electoral periods, the
electoral machinery of ARENA party (publicity saturation, spirit of crusade in
all the structures of the party, misuse of resources) works steadily, betting
all they can to the only goal they consider desirable to achieve: defeating
their main political rival, the FMLN.
In part, thanks to ARENA electoral (and party) politic is permanently present in
the quotidian life of Salvadorans. In addition to this, the official election
calendar establishes that elections should be celebrated after three years (in
the case of Mayor's offices and the Legislative Assembly) and five years
(general elections). This makes that, when discussing about politics, the
citizenry do not have any time for thinking about another things but party
politics.
Too much politics, rather too much, think those who consider that this
saturation is not a guarantee for the consolidation of democracy. Effectively,
if democracy was only a continuous and constant celebration of elections, El
Salvador would have a prominent place among the democracies. However, democracy
is something more than periodical elections. It is citizen participation in the
different spheres of public life; it is institutional strength, it is economic
and social inclusion. Democracy is, finally, a politic regime that does not
tolerate the abuse of power neither social nor economic exclusion.
From this approach, (party and electoral) political saturation is a concerning
issue for the Salvadoran society during the post-war era. In first place,
because the electoral events (campaigns, publicity, debates among candidates)
have turned themselves in a simulation, in which the most concerning problems of
Salvadorans are turned in an element for media manipulation, or are not taken
into account by those who, in theory, should be willing to commit themselves in
their solution. The party programs are usually a list of promises. They lack of
realistic diagnoses of the national or local problems, neither a rigorous
analyses of the financial sustainability of their proposals.
In second place, because of the enormous amount of public and private resources
invested in both informal and formal campaigns. Undoubtedly, is a real misuse
what they do in El Salvador during every electoral campaign. This misuse does
not have any justification, if one takes into account the poor level of the
political debate and the scarce commitment of political class with the main
problems of most of the Salvadoran people. Salvadoran society expends too much
in electoral politics, compared with the poor results of the performance of
politicians.
In third place, because of the devotion to electoral politics of those who have
another duties with the society. In our country —and also in others that share
the same vices— it is normal that officers in every level devote themselves,
during electoral campaigns, to make campaign for their parties. They do so
without resigning to their charges (this is, without resigning to their salary)
and, besides, they put the institutional resources they have to their party's
order. Actually, the clearest —the most grave and most outraging— example of
this is President Antonio Saca. He has not only devoted himself to his party's
campaign (forgetting about his duties as the President of the Republic), but he
is asking the Salvadorans to vote for himself, as he was another candidate of
ARENA for the March elections. Saca has reached the limit of what the society
should tolerate, because is the highest point of public indecency that he is
promoting an electoral campaign favoring his party, in which he wants to make
the citizenry believe that voting for the ARENA party candidates (to the mayor's
office in San Salvador and to the Legislative Assembly) equals voting for him.
In conclusion, it is all right and it is important that there are elections,
electoral propaganda and debates with candidates. The problem is that this is
the only kind of politics that interest citizens (and the parties, of course)
and not the politics that is concerned with the important issues in order to
edify a more inclusive, solidary and equal society. It is good and important
that there are elections, but if what is at stake on them is unsubstantial,
their contribution to democracy is petty.
Too many doubts about elections (I)
Normally, while they are in electoral campaign, their
actors express their optimism about the elections and invite the electorate to
vote. During the election day, such expressions as "fraud", "denounce" and
others become more and more frequent. But in the current campaign doubts are
expressed in advance. The doubts have to do with the technical aspect of
elections, but also with inveterate practices and with electoral violence. These
doubts are not odd at all: the past elections showed how the right wing use all
the tricks they can use when things are not going according to its interests.
Doubts on the technical aspects of elections
Last Tuesday, all of the political parties, except ARENA and PDC, asked the
Natural Persons National Registry (RNPN) to review the files containing the data
of the citizens who have their identification document (known as DUI). The
petition comes before the political parties declared that it is necessary to
have a trustable electoral registry. ARENA and PDC did not joined to the
petition, arguing that it invaded the privacy of citizens. The situation is
quite complex and their implications are worthy to analyze.
The question that comes to mind is what is behind these positions. Perhaps it is
true that searching in the RNPN's database is an invasion to privacy, as ARENA
argues, but it is also true that electoral processes have a scarce credibility,
not only for citizenry as a whole, but also for political parties. They know
better than anyone does all the treats inside of the institution that organizes
elections, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). They know that this is not an
independent institution, because the parties themselves control it.
If it is true that TSE seems to be making an effort to technically qualify
itself, also is true that technology can help to make fraud. Thinking that fraud
can be avoided as TSE has better technology is too much naive or cynic.
Technology is not politically aseptic, because people use it —people who belong
to political parties—.
One may assume that, for TSE officials, every election is an opportunity to
learn from the mistakes so the credibility in elections can be increased.
However, this is not the case. For instance, the citizenry has denounced that
the ruling party could be giving fake identification documents to foreigners in
order to increase its voters. In San José Las Flores, Chalatenango, it was also
denounced that ARENA printed ballot papers to use during the election.
In this week's edition of the virtual journal El Faro, it was published a note
in which it was denounced that the town of Jutiapa has an exaggerate increase of
voters. The municipality has a 60% of "new voters", that is, voters that moved
to the town on purpose, who come from the capital. According to the note, titled
"The art of making tricks with the electoral registry", "the municipality of
Jutiapa has over one thousand new inhabitants. They do not necessarily live down
there and only what they need, in practice, is to visit the place during the
election day in order to elect their mayor and contribute with their votes for
the election of a deputy of Cabañas. All of them changed their DUI and can vote
in the municipality. This increase of voters is surprising, if one takes into
account that over the 60% of the voters come from the capital city. In 2004, the
number of voters in the municipality was 3,327. According to the registry, for
the coming elections there are 1163 new voters that ARENA and the FMLN dislike,
because they maintain that, in its majority, are traditional voters for PCN, so
deputy Ciro Cruz Zepeda assures his seat in Assembly".
Another worrying aspect is the final scrutiny process. There are no guarantees,
as can be deduced of the statements of TSE's president, Walter Araujo, that the
final scrutiny would be totally trustable. The president of the collegiate
entity explains that TSE is facing technical difficulties: "the application that
distributes the digital image of data", he explains, will make that the
consolidated data would be known by 8 p.m. of that day, besides he also
recognized that the final scrutiny will have failures. In a few words, the
process has been under suspect in the past and there is no hope that things can
change in the coming elections.
The legislative platform of CD-FDR-PPSC coalition
The Legislative Platform of the CD-FDR-PPSC alliance contains a brief analysis of the most concerning national problems. It states the fact that, according to polls, the most important problems are unemployment and the high cost of living. In order to face these and other problems, it is necessary to have feasible solutions without "a narrow mentality and scope, sectarian and focused in the short-term". According to the platform, political polarization between ARENA and FMLN only benefits both parties, because it helps them to maintain their power shares in the parliament, "undermining institutional development".
Faced with these problems, the coalition presents itself as a new political
option, defining itself as a "constructive opposition", that goes against the
right wing authoritarianism and the lack or arguments of the "conservative
opposition, that lacks of arguments and feasible national solutions". In order
to support their position, the three parties recall the achievements they had
during last year, when they pressed the Executive branch to commit itself to
adjust the retiring funds revaluing, to review the policy for public debt and to
increase social investment. All of this in exchange of their votes to pass the
national budget bill for this year.
The legislative platform also mentions that the proposed measures are "feasible
lines" that the Salvadoran State may achieve. It also mentions the need to break
the "psychological scheme" of population, according to which electoral system is
confused with democracy. For the coalition, democracy goes beyond an electoral
process, it is a social construction that allows the citizen participation in
different aspects of public life.
Proposals
The legislative platform has five work areas: employment and defense of
purchasing power, citizen security, democratic institutionality, health and
environment, and regional integration, fellow countrymen overseas and
international relations. Among them, the first area has the larger part of
economic proposals, although economic aspects appear in the other areas.
This work area is concerned with the most important problems of Salvadoran
population, according to polls: unemployment and the high cost of living
expenses. In order to face these problems, the coalition proposes "reforms to
the labor laws to guarantee stability and respect to economic rights and social
benefits for workers". Changes on labor law are intended to make the
entrepreneurs responsible of paying the deductions made for social security and
retirement funds. This is a good norm because many employers, especially in
maquilas, do not deliver deductions to the social security or to retirement
funds administrators. This is theft that the businesses are committing. On spite
of this, the government does not punish these activities, fearing that the
foreign investors leave the country.
It must be considered that this action can affect unemployed people that are
willing to work even without any social benefit, like persons who are working in
small formal businesses, which has small profit. This measure would turn rigid
the labor market of small formal businesses, which, due to the current economic
situation, are having high costs and small profits. In this sense, this norm
should take into account the differences between those formal businesses that do
not deliver deductions, on spite of their economic solvency, and the small
formal businesses that have low margins of profit. A measure that does not make
this consideration may affect small businesses that are beginning to make their
way in formal activity.
On the other hand, the coalition candidates are committing themselves to support
"a law regulating credit cards, to avoid unfair practices" against credit card
holders. Regulating credit cards has become necessary during the latest years.
But because of the representation of banking in the ruling party, there is not a
strong normative that punish abusive charges in credit cards. The norm must be
clear so it can be manipulated. Other politic parties could support this measure
that goes against the interests of some sectors in the ruling party.
In the legislative field, the coalition would reform the electricity law, in
particular, the price establishment process, and the IVA tax law. The first
proposal seems correct, because many studies agree in the way to establish the
electricity rates is inconvenient for consumers. Among all the possible
procedures to establish prices, what is chosen is the most profitable procedure
for the electricity companies. It is necessary to find another procedure to
establish prices.
The reform to IVA tax is necessary in order to establish a progressive fiscal
politic. Passing this bill will be difficult in the Assembly. In first place,
the measure seems unrealistic, because a consensus with other political forces
that are also pressing for fiscal reforms, as the FMLN, is required.
The elected deputies for the coalition promise to establish laws in order to
reduce the negative impacts of CAFTA. Unlike the FMLN, the CD-FDR and PPSC
parties accept the agreement as a reality, but they desire to work in the
Assembly to become "an active monitor" of its effects in the country, especially
for agriculture, small and medium businesses. This initiative seems to be
convenient, but the coalition should recognize its limitations: a constant
monitoring over the effects of CAFTA in the Salvadoran economy goes beyond the
capacities of legislature. In the best of the cases, they can influence in some
legal dispositions, as long as other parties support them, but this does not
haven very often.
In general terms, the legislative proposal of the CD-FDR-PPSC coalition
establish clearly that it pursues to reform laws or establishing new ones. Their
proposals have been discussed in other legislative periods. However, their first
challenge is to gain more deputies in the Assembly. This is very difficult,
because the three parties have a strong presence in the capital cities, but it
is scarce in many areas of the country, especially in the cases of CD and PPSC.
Unlike the FMLN that maintains a too wide and ambitious legislative proposal —as
it were a presidential election proposal—, the coalition's proposal is centered
in reforming some laws and proposing others. The dilemma is that, besides it is
a somewhat believable proposal, it does not have enough support in order to gain
more seats in the Assembly. A work agenda like the coalition has, supported by a
legislative alliance that includes the FMLN, would make an opposition able to
weaken the ruling party.
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