ES–15. Editorial Note
El Salvador had “reportedly quiet and orderly elections” for municipalities and the Legislative Assembly on April 24, 1960, according to Ambassador Kalijarvi. The elections appeared “freer than anticipated,” as indicated by the outcome in Salvador, giving the opposition Partido de Acción Renovadora 53% of the 27,000 total vote for mayor. (Telegram 323 from San Salvador, April 25, 1960; 716.00/4–2560) Final election results [Typeset Page 593] gave the ruling Partido Revolucionario de Unificación Democrática a total vote of 368,545 to 51,557 for the opposition, and control of all Legislative Assembly seats and all but six municipalities. In telegram 337, May 2, 1960, Ambassador Kalijarvi reported that an opposition demonstration against alleged electoral fraud by the Government drew only a “small, unenthusiastic crowd.” He concluded that the “public in general seems disposed accept results and administration believed safely through electoral period.” (716.00/5–260) A memorandum of April 27, 1960, from the Director of Office of Central American and Panamanian Affairs, C. Allan Stewart, to Roy R. Rubottom, Jr., Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, stated that the opposition’s showing in the elections “comes as a considerable surprise to us and it indicates we can now expect the tempo of political activity in El Salvador to be noticeably accelerated.”(ARA/OAP Files, Lot 64 D 16, “Political Local - General: El Salvador, 1960”)