El Salvador: Demonstrators Blocked at Count of Vote in Presidential Runoff

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/world/americas/el-salvador-demonstrators-blocked-at-count-of-vote-in-presidential-runoff.html

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The police blocked hundreds of supporters of the conservative candidate in El Salvador’s presidential election from reaching a hotel where the authorities were doing a final count Monday for the runoff contest. Supporters of Norman Quijano, candidate of the Nationalist Republican Alliance, or Arena, carried signs reading “Vote by vote, tally sheet by tally sheet” to press their demands that all ballots from Sunday’s election be recounted. The electoral authorities say the law requires only that they review vote tally sheets from polling stations. The initial count showed Salvador Sánchez Cerén of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front ahead of Mr. Quijano by fewer than 7,000 votes out of nearly three million votes cast. Mr. Quijano said he would recognize the results only if there was a vote-by-vote count overseen by international observers. International missions that observed the election have said they were satisfied with how it was carried out. Arena governed El Salvador for two decades until losing the presidency in 2009 to the journalist Mauricio Funes.