A presidential election was held in El Salvador

El Salvador

El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

 on 15 March 2009. The main candidates were Rodrigo Ávila

Rodrigo Ávila

Rodrigo Ávila is a Salvadoran politician. He stood as the then ruling political party ARENA candidate for the presidency of El Salvador in the March 2009 presidential election. Upon his nomination, Ávila also became the President of ARENA. He has since resigned as President of the ARENA party...

 (ARENA

Nationalist Republican Alliance

The Nationalist Republican Alliance is a conservative political party in El Salvador. It was founded on September 30, 1981, by Roberto D'Aubuisson, in order to oppose the reformist military junta that was ruling El Salvador at the time...

) and Mauricio Funes

Mauricio Funes

Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena is the President of El Salvador. He won the 2009 presidential election as the candidate of the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front political party and took office on 1 June 2009.-Biography:Funes is married to Dr. Vanada Pignado, who was involved in...

 (FMLN). Funes won the election with 51.3% of the vote.

Polls

A poll from mid September 2008 gave Funes 29.2% and Ávila 26.1%, while Tomás Chévez (PCN

Party of National Conciliation

The Party of National Conciliation is a conservative political party in El Salvador. It was the most powerful political party in the country during the 1960s and 1970s, and was closely associated with the Salvadoran military. Julio Adalberto Rivera Carballo, a candidate of the National...

) got 1.9%. However, a poll from late September gave Funes 47.4% to 23.8% for Ávila. This latter poll showing Funes with a large lead is more consistent with polling from previous months.

Later polls from 2008 showed a tightening race between Funes and Ávila, with Funes retaining the lead.

Candidates

Abbreviation		Party	Presidential nominee	Running mate
	FMLN	Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front is, since 1992, a left-wing political party in El Salvador and formerly a coalition of five revolutionary guerrilla organizations...	Mauricio Funes Mauricio Funes Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena is the President of El Salvador. He won the 2009 presidential election as the candidate of the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front political party and took office on 1 June 2009.-Biography:Funes is married to Dr. Vanada Pignado, who was involved in...	Salvador Sánchez Cerén
	ARENA	Nationalist Republican Alliance Nationalist Republican Alliance The Nationalist Republican Alliance is a conservative political party in El Salvador. It was founded on September 30, 1981, by Roberto D'Aubuisson, in order to oppose the reformist military junta that was ruling El Salvador at the time...	Rodrigo Ávila Rodrigo Ávila Rodrigo Ávila is a Salvadoran politician. He stood as the then ruling political party ARENA candidate for the presidency of El Salvador in the March 2009 presidential election. Upon his nomination, Ávila also became the President of ARENA. He has since resigned as President of the ARENA party...	Arturo Zablah

The Christian Democratic Party

Christian Democratic Party (El Salvador)

The Christian Democratic Party is a political party in El Salvador.In the legislative elections, held on 16 March 2003, the party won 7.3% of the popular vote and 5 out of 84 seats in the Legislative Assembly. In the presidential election of 21 March 2004, the PDC supported Héctor Silva Argüello...

 had nominated Carlos Rivas Zamora and Merlin Peña, but withdrew the nominations on 2 February 2009 after it became apparent that they would have little chance of winning the election. The PDC did not immediately voice support for one of the other candidates.
In the same direction, the PCN, which had nominated Luis Tomás Chévez, also withdrew its candidate a couple days later.

Results

FMLN won the election with 51.3% of the vote, while ARENA received 48.7%, marking the first time ARENA had lost a presidential election in 20 years. Of the election, Funes said, "This is the happiest night of my life, and I want it to be the night of El Salvador's greatest hope. I want to thank all the people who voted for me and chose that path of hope and change." Ávila conceded defeat, saying that he and his party "will be a constructive opposition." An observation team from the Organization of American States

Organization of American States

The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...

 said that the elections were held without any major incidents, although there were claims of Hondurans voting at a voting center in Torola

Torola

Torola is a municipality in the Morazán department of El Salvador....

, Morazán

Morazán Department

Morazán is a department of El Salvador. Located in the northeast part of the country, its capital is San Francisco Gotera. It covers a total surface area of 1,447 km² and has a population of more than 200,000.-History:...

.

Several governments said that they looked forward to working with the new government, including Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.