Salvadorans voted today in a tight presidential election that pits a party founded by Marxist rebels against right-wing civil war foes who have governed since 1989.
Tens of thousands of Salvadoran immigrants in the United States flew home to vote in a tense race that has reopened wounds from the 1980-92 Cold War-era conflict.
Cars full of voters, dressed in their Sunday best or wearing party colors, clogged the capital's chaotic streets as supporters of both parties honked horns and waved flags.
Opinion polls gave a slight lead to leftist Mauricio Funes, a former TV journalist running for the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, with ruling-party conservative Rodrigo Avila just behind.
"It's time for a change. We are tired of this government. It promises things but there are always more poor than rich," said Reina Cano, 22, a trainee lawyer.
"Funes will be different. He's always been straight and honest."
With tensions running high after street clashes in recent days between militants from left and right, Mr Funes urged his supporters to stay calm when he arrived to cast his vote, wearing a dapper gray suit.
A tight result could spark protests after a campaign blighted by civil war-era barbs. "The propaganda has been very ugly ... Neither side is going to accept losing," said Dora Acosta, 59.
Picking a candidate with no involvement in its guerrilla past has given the FMLN its best chance yet of ousting the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance, or ARENA.
Many voters want to join a shift to the left in Latin America, but others are squeamish at the idea of handing power to a party schooled in Cuban-style socialism as an economic crisis bites.
"We are not going to deliver the country to communism, like in Venezuela and Nicaragua," said a woman decked out in ARENA's red, white and blue colors at a San Salvador polling station.
Ruling party candidate Avila, a former national police chief, was an army sniper who has admitted killing leftist rebels in the war, which left 75,000 people dead, and once expressed admiration for a death squad leader who founded ARENA.
With close ties to business, ARENA says it is qualified to handle an economic slowdown. In its 20 years in power it has built up big manufacturing and service sectors and adopted the US dollar in a country that used to rely heavily on indigo and coffee exports.
Reuters