La Prensa Gráfica announced that this is the first time anyone in El Salvador has used a UAS for journalism. Footage was shot from a DJI Phantom 2 Vision quadcopter which takes high-quality photos and videos, is able to fly as high as 2,300 feet (716 meters), and can stay in the air for 25 minutes.
The ruling leftist party in El Salvador is fighting to hold on to the presidency after one term, with critics saying the government of President Mauricio Funes has done little to energise a sluggish economy and reduce gang crime. In Costa Rica, the ruling conservative party is in a tough battle weighed down by corruption allegations.
El Salvador’s electoral tribunal said that with about 58% of ballots counted, Funes’ vice-president, Salvador Sanchez, had 49% of the vote in his bid to extend the rule of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, the party of former civil war guerrillas that won the presidency for the first time in 2009.
Sanchez was just under the 50% plus one vote he needed to win outright, and the election tribunal predicted he would fall short and have to face a runoff. San Salvador’s mayor, Norman Quijano, the candidate of the long-governing conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance, known as Arena, was second with nearly 39%.
Sources: The Guardian, La Prensa Grafica.