ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that El Salvador's restrictive administrative measures were adopted in the country's pre-democratic period, in response to the security conditions during the country's civil war and the desire to eradicate the election fraud that had been common in prior elections. It provides brief background on El Salvador's democratic transition, while the second section overviews the establishment of restrictive election administration practices in the 1980s and the continuation of restrictive practices through the 1994 general election. The chapter explains the initial adoption of election administration practices during this transition period in the third section. It describes the election administration reforms undertaken since 1994, while the fifth explains the factors that influenced those reforms. Election-related civil society groups have included individual organizations, as well as umbrella groups uniting diverse organizations. Intermittent pressure from the left, reinforced by pressure from domestic civil society and international election observers and experts, led to halting reforms.
