San Salvador, El Salvador - After a long campaign characterized by personal attacks, Rodrigo Avila - the ruling-party candidate in Sunday's presidential election - insists that El Salvador has yet to attain "political peace."

In an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, he said that a potential triumph by his only competition in the election would put El Salvador "within the realm of influence" of Hugo Chavez.

Leftist Mauricio Funes has denied such allegations.