SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (Reuters) -- El Salvador made final
                   preparations on Saturday for its fourth national elections since the end of civil
                   war in 1992, after quieting two major protest movements that threatened to
                   disrupt the vote.

                   Salvadorans on Sunday elect national legislators and 262 mayors, including
                   the mayor of the capital San Salvador, a post used in the past as a launching
                   pad for the presidency.

                   The Supreme Electoral Tribunal said on Saturday all was ready for the vote
                   pitting President Francisco Flores's right-wing National Republican Alliance
                   (ARENA) against its long-time rivals, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation
                   Front (FMLN).

                   The FMLN is the leftist guerrilla movement that transformed itself into a
                   political party following the 1992 peace accords ending 12 years of civil war
                   that killed some 75,000 in the Central American country of 6 million.

                   ARENA, a party once linked with right-wing death squads, has sought to paint
                   the FMLN as a party of insurgents, blaming it for a prolonged strike among
                   public sector health workers that had recently turned violent.

                   But chances for peaceful elections won a major boost Friday when the
                   government reached agreements with the strikers as well as with former
                   paramilitary troops who had threatened to hold protests during the vote.

                   Social welfare workers and state-employed doctors ended a walkout of nearly
                   four months after the government committed itself not to privatize the health
                   care system, one of the strikers' chief demands.

                   The Flores government also reached an agreement with a group claiming to
                   represent some 85,000 former paramilitary irregulars who aided the army in
                   the civil war but have been denied post-war government benefits.

                   The administration said it would set up credits to help finance projects to aid
                   the disgruntled former troops.

                   The campaign before Sunday's elections had been overshadowed by violent
                   street protests and widespread apathy among voters. Opinion polls showed
                   voters have little faith the elections will resolve the small, Pacific coast nation's
                   problems of crime and poverty.

                   A poll last month by the Jesuit Central American University indicated more
                   than 60 percent of 3.04 million registered voters will likely stay away from the
                   polls.

                   Crime is voters' top concern, and ARENA has called for tougher laws against
                   criminals. The FMLN has proposed attacking the problem through social
                   programmes aimed at reducing poverty.

                   In the San Salvador race, Mayor Hector Silva of the FMLN is seeking
                   reelection, and recent opinion polls give him a clear edge over ARENA
                   businessman Luis Cardenal.

                   In the 84-seat legislature, ARENA holds 28 seats and the FMLN 27, with the
                   remaining seats distributed among smaller parties. Polls show the two leading
                   parties in a dead heat in races across the country.

                    Copyright 2000 Reuters