San Salvador, El Salvador - El Salvador's left-wing Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) has won the country's parliamentary elections, the nation's election officials reported Monday.

The FMLN, a former guerilla movement emerging from the country's civil war that ended in 1992, won 42 per cent of the votes, beating out the former ruling conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) of outgoing President Antonia Saca by four points.

In a surprise development, ARENA candidate Norman Quijano won the mayoralty of the capital San Salvador from the incumbent Violetta Menjivar of FMLN, who had been seen as a clear favourite.

Some 4.2 million people were qualified to vote Sunday to elect 262 city mayors and 84 seats in the national parliament in what is widely regarded as a test for the presidential elections scheduled for March 15.

Official final results are expected later. (dpa)