Former guerrilla wins El Salvador vote; rival protests

Supporters of Norman Quijano of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) bang pots during a protest in San Salvador March 12, 2014. REUTERS/Jessica Orellana

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - A former Marxist guerrilla leader won El Salvador's presidential election by a margin of less than one quarter of 1 percent, final results showed on Thursday, and his right-wing rival continued to press to have the vote annulled.

Salvador Sanchez Ceren of the ruling Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), which as a militant group fought a string of U.S.-backed governments in a 1980-1992 civil war, won 50.11 percent support in Sunday's vote, results showed.