In what marks its worst electoral defeat to date, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) failed to secure a single seat in the recently concluded legislative elections, effectively shutting them out of the Legislative Assembly after 30 years of participation.
The final tally in San Salvador shattered any hopes for the FMLN to maintain a presence in the upcoming Legislative Assembly. Plunging to the fourth position, their vote count fell short, leading to the defeat of their current deputy, Anabel Belloso.
The initial blow came as representatives from the eastern region lost their seats. Jaime Guevara, the faction leader, faced defeat in Morazán, while Marleni Funes in Usulután and Dina Argueta in San Miguel suffered similar fates.
Once in power from 2009 to 2019, the FMLN secured over a million votes in presidential elections. The party’s first foray into parliamentary representation was in 1994, a mere two years after being legalized as a political party through legislative decree as part of agreements with ARENA to end the armed conflict. At that time, the FMLN won 21 seats, although seven members separated and formed the now-defunct Democratic Party.
Three years later, they secured 27 seats, and in 2000, 31. The peak was in 2009, when they claimed the presidency with fugitive Mauricio Funes, boasting 35 legislators. However, in the 2018 elections, following Salvador Sánchez Cerén’s second presidential term, the FMLN’s parliamentary representation dwindled to 23 seats. Three years later, it collapsed to a mere four seats.
In the latest public statements during the legislative scrutiny in San Salvador, candidate Karina Sosa even called for an electoral audit of overseas votes. Marleni Funes went as far as threatening street protests over their exclusion from the Legislative Assembly.
Former president Mauricio Funes, a fugitive from justice and now a Nicaraguan national, criticized his party for losing all parliamentary representation. «It is not true, then, that the FMLN will be, as Chino Flores stated, the second political force in the country,» he declared emphatically.