Norman Quijano of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) trailed Salvador Sanchez Cerén of the ruling Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in Sunday's vote by 0.22 percentage points, or fewer than 7,000 votes.
Due to the narrow margin between both parties and alleged voting fraud from the FMLN, ARENA demanded a vote-by-vote recount, a step that El Salvador's Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) claimed is not allowed under the country's electoral law.
However, there is evidence that shows that the TSE has been biased toward an FMLN victory for the last 16 months. In fact, a magistrate from the TSE publicly acknowledged on Twitter that he would be voting for the FMLN, in order to "punish" ARENA. The TSE is made up of five magistrates, four have close ties to the FMLN.