The
Christian Democratic Party is a
political partyA political party is a political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns...
in
El SalvadorEl Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. It borders the Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and Honduras. It lies on the Gulf of Fonseca, as does Nicaragua further south. It has a population of approximately 5.7 million people as of 2009 on...
.
At the
legislative electionsThe 2003 Salvadoran legislative election took place in El Salvador on 16 March 2003 to elect 84 deputies to the Legislative Assembly for a term of three years. The main opposition party, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front , won the most seats in election at 31...
, held on 16 March 2003, the party won 7.3% of the popular vote and 5 out of 84 seats in the
Legislative AssemblyThe Legislative Assembly is the legislative branch of the government of El Salvador.The Salvadoran legislature is a unicameral body....
. In the
presidential electionA presidential election was held in El Salvador on Sunday, 21 March 2004. The Salvadoran people elected a new president, together with his vice-president, for a five-year term.Antonio "Tony" Saca of the ARENA party won the election...
of 21 March 2004, the PDC supported Héctor Silva Argüello of the United Democratic Centre, who won 3% of the vote.
In the 12 March 2006
legislative electionA legislative election was held in El Salvador on 12 March 2006. The Salvadoran people elected 84 deputies to the Legislative Assembly for a term of three years....
, the party won 6.8% of the popular vote and 6 out of 84 seats.
The
Christian Democratic Party is a
political partyA political party is a political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns...
in
El SalvadorEl Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. It borders the Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and Honduras. It lies on the Gulf of Fonseca, as does Nicaragua further south. It has a population of approximately 5.7 million people as of 2009 on...
.
At the
legislative electionsThe 2003 Salvadoran legislative election took place in El Salvador on 16 March 2003 to elect 84 deputies to the Legislative Assembly for a term of three years. The main opposition party, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front , won the most seats in election at 31...
, held on 16 March 2003, the party won 7.3% of the popular vote and 5 out of 84 seats in the
Legislative AssemblyThe Legislative Assembly is the legislative branch of the government of El Salvador.The Salvadoran legislature is a unicameral body....
. In the
presidential electionA presidential election was held in El Salvador on Sunday, 21 March 2004. The Salvadoran people elected a new president, together with his vice-president, for a five-year term.Antonio "Tony" Saca of the ARENA party won the election...
of 21 March 2004, the PDC supported Héctor Silva Argüello of the United Democratic Centre, who won 3% of the vote.
In the 12 March 2006
legislative electionA legislative election was held in El Salvador on 12 March 2006. The Salvadoran people elected 84 deputies to the Legislative Assembly for a term of three years....
, the party won 6.8% of the popular vote and 6 out of 84 seats. The party had a similar level of support for the
2009 legislative electionsA parliamentary election was held in El Salvador on 18 January 2009. The leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front was widely expected to win the most seats for the first time against the nationalist conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance...
, winning 6% of the vote and 5 seats.
History
The Christian Democratic Party is the longest lasting of El Salvador's two leading parties. It was the left-of-center party while the Party of National Conciliation was right-of-center. With the rise of more socialist and communist parties in El Salvador, it became more of a centrist party. During the civil war, many leaders of the CDP who were more left-leaning were killed or disappeared, and the party moved to the right.
In 1989 Christian Democrat
Jose Napoleon DuarteJosé Napoleón Duarte Fuentes was a Salvadoran political figure who, from 1980 to 1982, led the civil-military Revolutionary Government Junta that took power in a 1979 coup d'état. He also served as civilian President of El Salvador between June 1, 1984 and June 1, 1989.- Career :Duarte was born in...
was the first Salvadoran president to democratically hand over power to a successor. The party's position has since shrunk with the rise of
ARENAThe Nationalist Republican Alliance is a conservative political party in El Salvador. It was founded on September 30, 1981, by Roberto D'Aubuisson, in order to oppose the reformist military junta that was ruling El Salvador at the time...
and
FMLNThe Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front is a Socialist political party of El Salvador that was formerly a revolutionary guerrilla organization...
.
However, since no party holds a majority in the legislature, it can be seen as effectively holding the balance of power. It often sides with ARENA and supported their effort to ratify the Central American Free Trade Agreement and pass a law supposedly aimed at fighting terrorism.
They struggled to pick a presidential candidate for 2009. The vice presidential candidate lives in the United States and has campaigned promising to give Salvadorans abroad the opportunity to vote in future presidential elections.