The World - News from March 20, 1988

Voters in El Salvador go to the polls today to elect a new national legislature and municipal officers in the fifth open balloting since a 1979 coup by reform-minded officers. At stake are all 60 seats in the National Assembly, where the party of President Jose Napoleon Duarte is expected to lose its majority. Voters will also elect mayors and municipal councils in all of the 262 cities and towns nationwide. Presidential elections are scheduled for next March. Rebels, waging an 8-year-old war against the U.S.-backed government, have urged people to boycott the vote. They contend that, in wartime, the popular will cannot be expressed at the polls.