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C hapter 4 Municipal Elections and Municipal Autonomy,ca.1880–1930 The last chapter showed how local political networks were built. This chapter looks at what those networks did on election day to gain control of municipal office. It looks at the nature of the challenge between rival networks, the tactics they used in their attempts to control voting, and the ways they used violence and the nullification process in support of their bids for office. All of this was highly regimented, and yet it all functioned according to informal rules that everyone understood and accepted as the normal way of doing things. This is a good moment to remind ourselves of the frequency of elections in El Salvador, as well as their intimate settings. In its first century of existence, El Salvador experienced something in the range of twenty thousand elections, involving tens of thousands of electoral overseers and candidates and hundreds of thousands of voters. Most of those elections took place in small communities, such as those described in the pages below, where most every political player knew everyone else involved in the process . Whatever happened in any one election would be remembered and carried over into the next one—to say nothing of its impact on interpersonal and professional relationships in the interim. Even in the larger urban areas, anyone with political clout knew everyone else of relevance. Given that elections for national offices occurred in the municipalities, 139 140 Authoritarian El Salvador and that they were run by the municipal authorities who had come to power in municipal elections just one month prior, the municipal setting was ground zero for all political affairs in El Salvador. This chapter is divided into two interrelated parts that transition into the national narrative in the next chapter. The first part sticks closely to the details of electoral battles at the municipal level. The second part begins by returning to the national level, showing how relations between the municipal and national levels changed from the early twentieth century onward with the consolidation and centralization of state power. Throughout most of the nineteenth century, regional- or national-level political networks had limited ability to control electoral happenings in the nation ’s municipalities, and even sometimes in their own strongholds. But slowly and steadily, starting around 1900, that began to change as the power of the central state grew. National-level authorities began to impose their will more readily, and in response municipal-level officials defended themselves with the concept of municipal autonomy. Local Elections Once a local political boss assembled a network of supporters (clients, strategic allies, friends, family, ethnic kinsmen, and so on), he was ready to contend for power in the annual municipal elections. These elections represented precise moments when the strength of politician and network were put to the test. At stake was control over the municipal government and all the rewards that officeholding brought, including the opportunity to build or reinforce alliances with more powerful political actors outside the municipality. Months of planning and preparation had to come together on election day if a network was to stand victorious at the end of the day. It had to control voters, secure the support of any necessary allies, and outmaneuver opponents. Most important, a network had to control the polling station. Elections were contested affairs, but voting was not. Candidates competed with one another for control over the polls in order to monopolize voting. A network gained control of the polls either physically, by occupying the polling station on the morning of the election, or meta- Municipal Elections and Municipal Autonomy, ca. 1880–1930 141 phorically, by ensuring that the officials who conducted the election were allies. Like the national-level elections examined in the preceding chapters, municipal elections were decided by overwhelming margins, and usually by unanimity. This was the case in both indirect elections prior to 1872 and direct elections thereafter. The multitude of voting records scattered throughout Salvadoran archives stands as evidence.1 In Nahuilingo (Sonsonate Department), the municipal council that came to power in 1840 did so with all nine electoral votes in its favor.2 The village of Santa Clara (San Vicente Department) reported, as the results of its election of 1843, “the eight electores have gathered . . . and have elected, by a unanimity of votes, Señor Coronado Panameño as Alcalde.”3 In Sonsonate City in 1864 the municipal officials were elected “by a unanimity of votes.”4 In Nahuizalco in 1908...

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