San Salvador, El Salvador  - Mauricio Funes, the leftist presidential candidate in Sunday's El Salvadoran presidential election, knows he will be facing the "myths and fears" about leftist governments in the war-torn Central American country.

In what opinion polls frame as a very close election, Funes seeks to defeat the ruling-party candidate, Rodrigo Avila, in an effort to put an end to a 20-year rule by the right-wing party ARENA.

San Salvador, El Salvador  - Salvadorans are set to elect a new president Sunday in a vote that could help the strife-torn Central American country put its violent political past behind it.

For the first time in 20 years of rule by the right-wing party ARENA, the leftist FMLN is within reach of the presidency. But the election between leftist former TV journalist Mauricio Funes, 49, and right-wing former police chief Rodrigo Avila, 45, remains too close to call, according to the latest surveys of public opinion.

San Salvador  - Salvadorans are set to elect a new president Sunday, in a vote that could help the strife-torn Central American nation put its violent political past behind it.

For the first time in 20 years of right-wing rule, the leftist FMLN is within reach of the presidency against the ruling right-wing ARENA.

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.

San Salvador, El Salvador  - El Salvador's 4.2 million voters are began to voting Sunday to elect 262 city mayors and 84 seats in the national parliament in what is widely regarded as a test for th

San Salvador, El Salvador - El Salvador on Sunday is likely to move one further step towards another leftist government in Central America, as the country's 4.2 million voters elect 262 city mayors and 84 seats in the national parliament.

Sunday's vote is widely regarded a test for the presidential elections scheduled for March 15. Currently, Guatemala and Nicaragua are ruled by left-leaning governments.

According to opinion polls, the elections are mainly a contest between two major political forces, while the remaining parties enjoy only minimal voter support.