Arias Officially Named
President, Says Poor are Priority
By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net

Just over one month after Costa Ricans went to the polls Feb. 5, the Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) finally declared a winner in the historically close presidential election.

“We constitutionally declare Oscar Arias… President of the Republic,” Tribunal president Oscar Fonseca announced yesterday at a press conference attended by dozens of reporters, politicians and Tribunal employees.

The announcement was a somewhat anticlimactic finish to a month of anticipation. While unofficial figures have given Arias the lead for weeks and his main rival, Ottón Solís, conceded victory last Friday, Costa Ricans, including Arias himself, have been patiently awaiting the official announcement to move forward.

The country can now anticipate a President from May 8, 2006, to May 8, 2010, who supports increased taxes and the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) and promises to help Costa Rica become a developed country by its bicentennial in 2021.

“From here on out, we have much work to do,” Arias told the press, who packed a small room at the National Liberation Party headquarters in La Sabana, west of San José, following the Tribunal's announcement.

The President-elect continued that he will build bridges with his adversaries, and said he will contact Solís, of the Citizen Action Party, if he doesn't hear from him in the next 48 hours.

“Democracy is a permanent dialogue, making concessions, being flexible, having the flexibility to accept that you may not always be right,” said Arias, an ex-President who has in the past been criticized for his ego.

According to the official tally after a manual recount by the Tribunal, Arias received a total of 664,551 votes, or 40.92% of the 1.62 million total valid votes cast – 18,169 more votes than Solís, who received 646,382, or 39.8%. The rivals were trailed by Otto Guevara, of the Libertarian Movement, with 137,710 (8.48%); Ricardo Toledo, of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), with 57,655 (3.55%) and Antonio Alvarez Desanti, of the Union for Change, with 39,557 (2.44%).

Arias was President from 1986-1990 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his help negotiating peace agreements to end the civil wars that were tearing apart Central America.

The President-elect said the country's poor will be his top priority.

“Men and women of all ages and social sectors supported us. But… this government cannot forget that it was the most humble, the most needy, the poorest, the residents of slums, urban and rural, who most believed and trusted in us,” Arias said. “Therefore we have a very large debt…this government has to think fundamentally in them.”