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| Salvador Sanchez Ceren FMLN´s Vice Presidential candidate |
It is the last day of campaigning and the media has been worked into a fevered pitch. The TV is dominated by smear campaigns from the right wing ARENA party and the newspapers and radio are just as bad. The most popular tactic is to compare a vote for Funes to a vote for Chavez, to say explicitly that FMLN will limit religious freedoms, the remittances from the US and other countries will be discontinued and various other ridiculous and fear mongering charges.
Funes´s and the FMLN´s campaign meanwhile have been comparatively classy. In TV commercials, long shots of children playing and happy workers welcome the imminent change to a left wing government.
News reporters tried to charge FMLN supporters with an attack on a group of ARENA campaigners. A street fight occurred today where rocks were throw from one side of the street to the other. Initial reports said the FMLN had been shooting guns but it quickly came out that no shots were fired. However, the retraction is essentially worthless as once a report of such as gunfire on the streets attributed to one party had been sent out on the air, the desired effect of fear and suspicion is created immediately. No retraction or eye witness accounts can undo damage. These false reports support ARENA´s charge that FMLN supports are gang members and ARENA is needed to maintain the tenuous peace that exists today.
The newspapers, El Diario de Hoy and others, are running full page ads in the form of letters to the readers from concerned citizens. One such letter requested the body of the author´s dead relative to be returned to the family for a proper burial. Although not explicit saying the FMLN were responsible for the death, the right wing controlled media are using deaths from the civil war years as a thinly veiled threat that a change in the governing body may cause the war to start anew.
The city streets are covered in red, white and blue paint and posters for the two presidential candidates. There were other parties with candidates up until a few weeks ago but they have all since dropped out leaving the two main rivals.
The campaign ban imposed for the last three days before an election will cause the parties to be creative. Direct advertising is not allowed but undoubtedly there will be many ways for the parties to maintain their media presence.
Funes´s and the FMLN´s campaign meanwhile have been comparatively classy. In TV commercials, long shots of children playing and happy workers welcome the imminent change to a left wing government.
News reporters tried to charge FMLN supporters with an attack on a group of ARENA campaigners. A street fight occurred today where rocks were throw from one side of the street to the other. Initial reports said the FMLN had been shooting guns but it quickly came out that no shots were fired. However, the retraction is essentially worthless as once a report of such as gunfire on the streets attributed to one party had been sent out on the air, the desired effect of fear and suspicion is created immediately. No retraction or eye witness accounts can undo damage. These false reports support ARENA´s charge that FMLN supports are gang members and ARENA is needed to maintain the tenuous peace that exists today.
The newspapers, El Diario de Hoy and others, are running full page ads in the form of letters to the readers from concerned citizens. One such letter requested the body of the author´s dead relative to be returned to the family for a proper burial. Although not explicit saying the FMLN were responsible for the death, the right wing controlled media are using deaths from the civil war years as a thinly veiled threat that a change in the governing body may cause the war to start anew.
The city streets are covered in red, white and blue paint and posters for the two presidential candidates. There were other parties with candidates up until a few weeks ago but they have all since dropped out leaving the two main rivals.
The campaign ban imposed for the last three days before an election will cause the parties to be creative. Direct advertising is not allowed but undoubtedly there will be many ways for the parties to maintain their media presence.
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