El Salvador presidential runner-up wants vote annulled
El Salvador presidential runner-up wants vote annulled
By Noe Torres
SAN SALVADOR Wed Mar 12, 2014 4:14am EDT
(Reuters) - The runner-up in El Salvador's presidential election asked the electoral tribunal on Tuesday to annul the tight contest and threatened to go to the Supreme Court if necessary.
Norman Quijano of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) trailed Salvador Sanchez Ceren of the ruling leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front in Sunday's vote by 0.22 percentage points, or fewer than 7,000 votes.
On Tuesday, about 2,000 Quijano supporters waving red, white and blue Arena party flags marched to barricades in streets around the hotel where the tribunal is counting the votes.
"We cannot allow such a blatant fraud," said Prudencia Aparicio, a 25-year-old owner of a cake shop.
The tribunal is checking that records from polling stations match electronic tallies from a preliminary count on Sunday night, but not recounting individual votes.
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