SAN SALVADOR, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Left-wing opposition candidate Mauricio Funes won El Salvador's presidential election on Sunday, figures released by the country's election commission showed.

    Born on Oct.18, 1959, in San Salvador, Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena, is one of the most influential media personnel in El Salvador.

    Being the candidate from the left-wing opposition party Farabundo Marti Front for the National Liberation (FMLN), he promised to push reform in education, health and to fight poverty in the country.

    Funes studied literature at the Central American university "Jose Simeon Canas" (UCA).

    He gained immense popularity after working as a journalist for more than 20 years. He left his successful journalistic career to enter politics and elevated FMLN, a former guerrilla group, to power.

    Between 1986 and 1991, he worked for different TV channels, later he worked for the UCA to launch an audiovisual center. He returned to TV channel Canal 12 as news director in 1997. In 2001 he served as correspondent for CNN's Spanish service till to September 2007, when he was nominated as presidential candidate of FMLN.

    In 1994 he was awarded the Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University.

    Funes is married and has three sons.