Antigua and Barbuda 2009

Elections were held in the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda on March 12. In 2004, the United Progressive Party led by Baldwin Spencer defeated the quasi-dictatorial Antigua Labour Party (ALP) of the Bird family. The ALP had been in power since 1981.

The ALP, still led by the Bird family, has gone through a leadership crisis recently, and will likely continue with this second electoral loss. Here are the quasi-final results.

United Progressive Party (UPP) 51.16% winning 9 seats (-3)
Antigua Labour Party (ALP) 46.95% winning 7 seats (+3)
Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM) 1.14% winning 1 seat (±0)

The UPP-ally BPM’s only seat, the constituency of Barbuda, is at risk of falling to the ALP in a recount. Indeed, current tallies indicate that the BPM incumbent has won 474 votes against 473 for the ALP. Below is a map of the result, using a base map from Adam Carr’s interwebs page.

El Salvador 2009

With around 90% of the votes counted in the Salvadorian presidential election, the left-wing FMLN candidate, Mauricio Funes, a 49-year old former journalist, has won the election. It is the first time that the former far-left guerilla group has won the Presidency in El Salvador. The conservative ARENA has held power since its victory in 1992 elections, and its candidate (and current President) Antonio Saca won over 57% of the votes by the first round in 2004 (the FMLN won only 35.7%). The ARENA-ally PCN and the Christian Democrats ended up not running, claiming that they had no chance.

With very high turnout (86.2%), these seem to be the result given by a lot of international sources. However, the TSE’s website is, as always, broken.

Mauricio Funes/Salvador Sánchez Cerén (FMLN) 51.1%
Rodrigo Ávila/Arturo Zablah (ARENA) 48.9%

Funes has already claimed victory, and the TSE has recognized his victory.

Hopefully more stuff later.