Dates of last and next legislative elections:  2003/2006

Head of state: President Francisco Flores (President-elect Tony Saca)

AT THE LAST ELECTION

El Salvador was dominated by the centrist PDC and right-wing Arena until the rise in the late 1990s of the FMLN, the leftist former guerrillas. In 1997 the FMLN won the mayorship of San Salvador and half the state capitals.

In the 1999 presidential election a divided FMLN came a poor second to Arena's Francisco Flores, who promised reduced poverty and the redistribution of income. With the economy in difficulties, Arena lost Assembly elections to the FMLN, but emerged victorious from the 2004 presidential poll, won by popular former sports commentator Tony Saca.

Major issues are crime and the human rights abuses during the civil war.

From "The Financial Times World Desk Reference" © Dorling Kindersley 2004