The question on many Salvadorans' minds is what kind of president the popular but politically inexperienced Elías Antonio Saca will be.

BY CATHERINE ELTON
Special to The Herald

SAN SALVADOR - When a financial crisis hit his family in the late 1970s, 13-year-old Elías Antonio Saca went to work as a radio sportscaster.

The grandchild of Palestinian migrants eventually became a radio personality, then owner of an important radio station chain, head of El Salvadors influential business association and, on Sunday, the nation's president-elect.

Energetic and affable, the 39-year-old Saca, little known in politics until he won the candidacy of the ruling and right-of-center ARENA party, took the balloting by a wide margin over his closest rival, Shafik Handal, a former guerrilla leader during El Salvador's civil war in the 1980s.

''He is a person from a humble family, and he triumphed. He is a good example for El Salvador,'' said Federico Colorado, current president of the National Association of Private Enterprises.

Saca, known here as Tony, symbolizes what many Salvadorans can't seem to find at home. He achieved the 'American Dream' without emigrating to the United States, like hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans have done.

STELLAR CANDIDATE

Add to that a sense of humor, ease in front of cameras, youth and the absence of any baggage from the war that left some 75,000 dead, and Salvadorans got what fans and critics agree was a stellar presidential candidate.

Now the question on many Salvadorans' minds is what kind of president this supercandidate will make.

His supporters point out that he has ample experience in business and is known as a hard worker.

''He is a good listener, he is conciliatory. He doesn't lose his cool. He has widespread support in the business community,'' Colorado said.

But independent analysts say they just don't know that much about him.

''He is a blank page, and you don't know how it will be filled,'' Salvadoran economist Roberto Rubio said.

IDEAS UNKNOWN

Héctor Dada, a centrist party legislator, said Saca ``is a great speaker, but you have no idea what kind of path he might take as president, because we don't know what his ideas are.''

Critics point out that Saca never finished college, has no prior government experience and that the second item on his résumé is the fact that he commentated four soccer World Cups.

They say his image won the elections and gave a face lift to an ARENA party increasingly unpopular after 15 years in power but that governing is a different ballgame.

''He doesn't seem to me to be someone who has the capacity to govern the country,'' said Miguel Cruz, director of the public opinion institute at the University of Central America in San Salvador. ``There are people behind him who are going to tell him how to govern.''

WORK CUT OUT

His supporters and detractors agree that Saca will have his work cut out for him when he assumes power June 1. The country's economy is stagnating. Unemployment and underemployment are high. Crime is rampant. And in the legislature, the leftist opposition FMLN party holds a plurality of the seats.

Saca says he is ready to work with the FMLN and change the image of ARENA, widely accused of favoring the country's business elite and relegating social issues to the back burner.

''The right has to continue to modernize,'' he told The Herald before the elections. ``Our priorities are going to be generating employment, security and social issues. ARENA needs to understand the changing times and change ourselves.''