SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (CNN) -- Francisco Flores of El Salvador's
                  governing rightist party won an overwhelming victory in El Salvador's
                  presidential elections and immediately pledged Monday to form a broad-based
                  government.

                  Preliminary official figures gave Flores and his Republican National Alliance
                  (ARENA) about 52 percent of the vote in Sunday's election -- enough to
                  avoid a runoff against the No. 2 finisher, Facundo Guardado of the leftist
                  Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.

                  In comments to radio stations Monday, Flores promised "to form a Cabinet
                  of the widest range possible," though it was not clear whether that meant
                  members of the leftist opposition would be included.

                  Flores, who starts his five-year term on June 1, said he would name a
                  commission to help him select Cabinet ministers. He also promised "a frontal
                  attack" on the country's crime problem, as well as increased attention to
                  education and agriculture.

                  Flores ran a media-heavy, non-confrontational campaign that largely avoided
                  the traditional mudslinging of Salvadoran politics.

                  Results are big setback to former rebels

                  The election result was a heavy blow to the Front, a former guerrilla coalition
                  that became a political party after the peace treaty. Known by its Spanish
                  acronym, FMLN, it received about 29 percent of the vote. Only two years
                  ago, it won the election for San Salvador mayor and nearly equaled
                  ARENA's seats in Congress.

                  Guardado blamed the loss in part on competition from another former
                  guerrilla, Ruben Zamora, who took about 7 percent of the vote, as well as
                  "those who control the telecommunications, the economic power" that
                  financed Flores' costly campaign.

                  He said Flores was merely "a new face" of "those who always have
                  exploited the country."

                  Flores, 39, is part of a new political generation that had little direct role in the
                  12-year civil war that ended in 1992 and cost 70,000 lives. He succeeds
                  businessman Armando Calderon Sol as president.

                  He ran on a platform focused on creating jobs, battling crime and poverty
                  and preserving the environment for future generations, a program to be
                  accomplished in part through reforms of the National Police and judiciary
                  and decentralization of government decision-making.

                  Voter apathy concerns critics

                  While even ARENA's critics laud Flores' intentions, some believe he does
                  not have the power base within the party to bring about true reform.

                  Others say the country's fledgling democracy is threatened by pervasive
                  disillusionment with the political process, reflected in Sunday's dismally low,
                  35 percent turnout.

                  Analysts say such voter apathy reflects doubts about whether El Salvador's
                  crime and poverty can be handled by politicians.

                  "This voter indifference is a threat to democracy, because the lack of
                 credibility of the established parties could open the way for emergence
                 of an authoritarian ruler," Miguel Cruz, director of the Central American
                 University's public opinion center, said.

                  Still, many observers said the elections proved that democracy has taken
                  hold and that the extremes of both right and left have moved toward the
                  center.

                  The FMLN swapped bullets for ballots in its efforts to unseat ARENA,
                  transforming itself from rebel army to a center-left political party after laying
                  down its guns under the 1992 U.N. brokered peace accords.

                  During 10 years in power, ARENA remade itself from a hard-line party into
                  a pro-business, conservative force.

                  U.S. President Bill Clinton, who plans to visit El Salvador as part of a
                  four-nation Central American tour, is likely to pay tribute to the country's
                  progress from war to democracy.

                  Flores said the U.S. president's visit one day after El Salvador's elections
                  would "send the world a message that this is a new country," where
                  democracy has replaced tyranny and armed insurrection.

                            CNN's Brian Yasui and Reuters contributed to this report.