|
Currency | |
|
Dollar Exchange: | |
|
Central Bank | |
|
|
 Sell ¢501.38 |
|
CR Colon: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
US Dollar: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
08 Feb 2006 |
|
Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, February 08, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Uncertainty Over Whether
Provisional
Vote Counts
Will Be Released
Two days after Sunday's historically close presidential election, the country remains unsure of the winner, and it was also unclear yesterday whether the Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) would release more numbers from a manual vote count before completing the obligatory re-count of all votes, which could take, by law, up to 30 days.
(Click for more)
U.S. Ambassador Reacts
To National Elections
With the outcome of Sunday's elections still unknown, U.S. Ambassador Mark Langdale said his first Costa Rican Election Day had impressed upon him the importance of democracy here.
(Click for more)
Nicaraguans File
Complaint
Against Costa Rica
Costa Rica's Foreign Ministry reported yesterday it would acknowledge a complaint presented Monday by Nicaragua before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) over the case of two assassinated Nicaraguans.
(Click for more)
February 08
6th Annual “Have a Heart” Charity Golf Tournament
All proceeds benefit education and schools in Santa Cruz, Guanacaste, on the northwestern Pacific coast. Volunteer meeting, Feb. 8, 5 p.m., Villa Alegre B-and-B, Playa Langosta; registration party, Feb. 12, 7 p.m., Villa Alegre; four-person team scramble, Feb. 14, tee-off 7:30 a.m., Hacienda Pinilla Golf Course, Guanacaste. Info: 653-0270.
Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula
Trip organized by Organization for Tropical Studies, Feb. 8-12. Info: 524-0625, www.ots.ac.cr.
The Blind Pigs
Featuring blues legends King Perkoff (sax) and Chicago Louis (guitars) of Mike Bloomfield Band, Boz Scaggs, Albert Collins and Chicago Blues Power, tonight at 9 p.m., at Chango, Escazú, 228-1173.
Edited By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff
aroberson@ticotimes.net
Uncertainty Over Whether Provisional
Vote Counts Will Be Released
By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff
aroberson@ticotimes.net
Two days after Sunday's historically close presidential election, the country remains unsure of the winner, and it was also unclear yesterday whether the Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) would release more numbers from a manual vote count before completing the obligatory re-count of all votes, which could take, by law, up to 30 days.
Yesterday morning, elections officials began the official manual recount. They started with the 712 polling places that, for various reasons, had to be counted by hand and were not included in Monday's preliminary count. The preliminary count included only 88% of polling places and gave National Liberation Party (PLN) candidate Oscar Arias a lead of only fractions of a percentage point over Citizen Action Party (PAC) candidate Ottón Solís.
Election officials conducting the manual count are working at five tables, each with 12 to 14 officials overseen by a Tribunal magistrate. Official observers from five different political parties also observe the process.
As elections officials counted from 8 a.m-6 p.m yesterday, the TSE sent mixed reports throughout the day about whether and when these counts would be released to the press. TSE President Oscar Fonseca told reporters at a press conference at 12:30 p.m. that the Tribunal was hoping to finish counting votes from the 712 remaining uncounted polling places by yesterday at 6 p.m.
But as of 7:30 last night, the TSE had only counted 250 of these precincts. They did not total these 250 votes for the press, or add them to the preliminary count, but rather gave journalists the vote counts from each precinct in chart form and left them to do the math themselves by adding these votes to counts posted on the TSE's Web site at 3:15 p.m. Monday. As of that time, Arias was ahead with 591,769 votes, closely followed by Citizen Action Party (PAC) candidate Ottón Solís with 588,519 votes.
Votes from the 250 polling places counted yesterday gave Arias an additional 600-vote lead over Solís, according to Channel 7, making for an approximately 3,850 vote lead.
Fonseca told Channel 7 TSE yesterday that the Tribunal ran out of time yesterday to count all 712 polling places, Fonseca said.
“They're 712 polling places …it's humanly impossible to finish counting these polling places today,” Fonseca said.
Meanwhile, Citizen Action Party (PAC) Vice Presidential candidate Epsy Campbell presented the TSE with a letter asking that the Tribunal not release any preliminary counts and wait until the manual recount is finished to declare a winner so as not to cause chaos by naming a preliminary, unofficial winner.
The non-profit Transparency International Costa Rica also asked that the TSE not give a preliminary count yesterday because some precincts showed inconsistencies. The TSE should wait until the final manual recount “to make sure all the precincts are counted as they should be,” Transparency Costa Rica President Roxana Salazar told The Tico Times.
TSE officials today will continue manually counting the remaining uncounted precincts and will then proceed to the final manual count of all votes. In the mean time, Costa Ricans are looking at potentially one month before they know for sure who their next President will be.
U.S. Ambassador Reacts
To National Elections
By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff
kstanley@ticotimes.net
With the outcome of Sunday's elections still unknown, U.S. Ambassador Mark Langdale said his first Costa Rican Election Day had impressed upon him the importance of democracy here.
“The administration's key foreign policy initiative is the spread of democracy, and Costa Rica has been a great example of that for over fifty years,” he told The Tico Times yesterday during an interview at the U.S. Embassy in western San José. “The celebration Sunday, with people walking with their children to their polls – it's really celebrating the gift of democracy, so that was really great.”
“We learned in the United States in the last two elections that voting matters, every vote counts,” he added, referring to U.S. President George W. Bush's two victories over Al Gore and John Kerry in 2000 and 2004, respectively. “We'll have to wait and see what the official outcome is.”
He said he spent Election Day at a polling station in the western suburb of Escazú, near the Ambassador's Residence, and at the Children's Museum downtown where kids and their families waited “in a line that stretched all the way through the museum, out the door and into the street” to participate in the Children's Vote (which, unlike the adults' version, made Oscar Arias the clear winner) (TT Online, Feb. 6).
“You could clearly see that Costa Ricans take their democracy very seriously and are very proud of it. It made me very proud that a system that's done so much for our country in its 225 years is so entrenched and embraced by Costa Ricans,” Langdale said.
See an upcoming edition of The Tico Times for the complete interview with Ambassador Langdale.
Nicaraguans File Complaint Against Costa Rica
Costa Rica's Foreign Ministry reported yesterday it would acknowledge a complaint presented Monday by Nicaragua before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) over the case of two assassinated Nicaraguans.
“ Costa Rica 's government will acknowledge the issue when it is notified by CIDH, if the Commission accepts the case,” according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Norman Caldera said Monday that he appealed to the Commission for justice in the cases of Natividad Canda and José Ariel Silva, Nicaraguans killed last year in Costa Rica.
The Costa Rican Foreign Minister expressed in a statement confidence in the Costa Rican judicial system and said he knows the investigation process of both cases continues on its course, according to given circumstances.
“If the case is acknowledged by the Commission, the Judicial Branch will put the necessary information at the disposition of the honorable Inter- American Commission of Human Rights,” the statement said.
Canda was killed by Rottweiler dogs in Cartago, east of San José, Nov. 10, and Silva was killed by various stab wounds in Alajuela, northwest of San José Dec. 4. Both cases caused alarm by the Nicaraguan government.
“This is the first time a country has submitted a case before the Commission against another country, and the procedures are not clearly established,” Caldera said.
He added that by filing the complaint, Nicaragua 's government is complying with its constitutional duty to defend and protect Nicaraguans living abroad.
The Nicaraguan Foreign Minister signaled that in the cases of Canda and Urbina there were no arrests, people accused, nor judicial action, which produces a sense of injustice.
The complaint was presented Monday in Washington by agent José Antonio Tijerino Medrano, ex-Ambassador to Nicaragua before the Organization of American States (OAS) and a team from the Foreign Ministry has contracted other experts to work on the case.
-ACAN-EFE