Salvadoran presidential candidates in virtual tie

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – The left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) is still leading the incumbent right-wing ARENA party in polls before the March 15 presidential election, though the lead is diminishing, according to two polls released last week.

Mauricio Funes, the FMLN presidential candidate leads his ARENA opponent Rodrigo Avila by less than three percentage points – 30.9 percent to 28 percent – resulting in a technical tie between the two, according to a poll by La Prensa Gráfica. A second poll shows that the FMLN candidate is ahead by only one point. At one point, Funes had been leading by almost 10 points.