Christian Democratic Party (El Salvador)

Christian Democratic Party Partido Demócrata Cristiano
Leader	Rodolfo Parker
Founded	12 October 1960 (PDC) 2011 (Party of Hope)
Headquarters	Alameda Juan Pablo II y 11 Avenida Norte bis. 507 Centro de Gobierno, San Salvador, El Salvador
Ideology	Christian democracy
Political position	Centre
Continental affiliation	Christian Democrat Organization of America
International affiliation	Centrist Democrat International
PARLACEN group	Center-Democratic Integration Group
Seats in the Legislative Assembly	1 / 84
Mayors	3 / 262
Central American Parliament	0 / 20
Website
pdcelsalvador.org
Politics of El Salvador Political parties Elections

1982 PDC election poster

The Christian Democratic Party (Spanish: Partido Demócrata Cristiano) is a Christian democratic party in El Salvador. After being officially disbanded by the Supreme Court in 2011, it continued to work under the name of Party of Hope (Spanish: Partido de la Esperanza), before re-taking its original name in 2012.

In the legislative elections, held on 16 March 2003, the party won 7.3% of the popular vote and 5 out of 84 seats in the Legislative Assembly. In the presidential 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 election, 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 elections, 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 PDC who were more left-leaning were killed or disappeared, and the party moved to the right.

Andrés “El Chico” Zaldívar leader of the international Christian Democrat Movement and the president of El Salvador Jose Napoleon Duarte.

In 1989 Christian Democrat José Napoleón Duarte was the first Salvadoran president to democratically hand over power to a successor. The party's position has since shrunk with the rise of ARENA and FMLN.

However, since no party held a majority in the legislature, it could be seen as effectively holding the balance of power. It often sided 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.

While the party was technically to be disbanded after the 2004 election, in which its candidate did not gather the necessary 3% of the vote, it was allowed to hold on to its registration by decree; this decree was declared unconstitutional on 30 April 2011, and the party was thus disbanded.

The PDC was effectively replaced by the Party of Hope, which was registered with the National Electoral Tribunal in October 2011. In September 2012 the Party of Hope asked for its name to be changed back to Christian Democratic Party, which was allowed by the Electoral Tribunal.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Election	Candidate	First round		Second round		Result
		Votes	%	Votes	%
1967	Abraham Rodríguez	106,358	21.62%			Lost N
1972	José Napoleón Duarte	324,756	42.14%			Lost N
1977	Ernesto Antonio Claramount Roseville	394,661	32.70%			Lost N
1982	Supported Álvaro Magaña	36	60%			Elected Y
1984	José Napoleón Duarte	549,727	43.41%	752,625	53.59%	Elected Y
1989	Fidel Chávez Mena	342,732	36.5%			Lost N
1994	Fidel Chávez Mena	214,277	16.4%			Lost N
1999	Rodolfo Parker	67,207	5.68%			Lost N
2004	Héctor Silva Argüello	88,737	3.90%			Lost N
2009	Did not run
2014	Supported Antonio Saca (Unity Movement)	307,603	11.44%			Lost N
2019	Supported Carlos Calleja (ARENA)	857,084	31.72%			Lost N

Note

In the 1982 election Álvaro Magaña was elected by the Legislative Assembly

Legislative Assembly elections

Election	Votes	%	Position	Seats	+/–	Status in legislature
1961	64,9161	18.8%	2nd	0 / 54		Extra-parliamentary
1964	77,315	26.1%	2nd	14 / 60	14	Opposition
1966	120,645	31.2%	2nd	15 / 60	1	Opposition
1968	193,248	43.3%	2nd	19 / 60	4	Opposition
1970	142,659	27.0%	2nd	16 / 60	3	Opposition
1972	119,1942	22.7%	2nd	8 / 60	9	Opposition
1974	unknown2		2nd	15 / 60	7	Opposition
1976	boycotted			0 / 60	15	Extra-parliamentary
1978				0 / 60		Extra-parliamentary
1982	590,644	40.2%	1st	24 / 60	24	Government
1985	505,338	52.4%	1st	33 / 60	9	Government
1988	326,716	35.1%	2nd	22 / 60	11	Government
1991	294,029	28.0%	2nd	26 / 84	4	Opposition
1994	240,451	17.87%	3rd	18 / 84	8	Opposition
1997	93,545	8.4%	4th	10 / 84	8	Opposition
2000	87,074	7.2%	4th	6 / 84	4	Opposition
2003	101,841	7.3%	4th	5 / 84	1	Opposition
2006	106,509	6.8%	4th	6 / 84	1	Opposition
2009	146,904	6.63%	4th	5 / 84	1	Opposition
2012	60,486	2.76%	5th	1 / 84	4	Opposition
2015	56,353	2.48%	5th	1 / 84		Opposition
2018	65,994	3.11%	5th	3 / 84	3	Opposition
2021	44,379	1.70%	7th	1 / 84	2	Government

¹As part of Union of Democratic Parties, an alliance of the Renovating Action Party, the Christian Democratic Party and the Social Democrat Party.

²As part of National Opposing Union, an alliance of the Christian Democratic Party, the National Revolutionary Movement and the Nationalist Democratic Union

External links

• Website of the party