By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff | kstanley@ticotimes.net

It took President Oscar Arias nearly 24 hours to respond to a surprising decision from election officials to allow a popular referendum on a controversial trade pact – but once he did respond, he left no doubt about his support for the ruling, which he called “a blessing from God.”

During a press conference Friday morning, Arias announced that he plans to convene a referendum on the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), a step that would circumvent the requirement that referendum organizers collect 132,000 signatures in favor of a public vote before it can proceed. Arias said he will send a referendum decree to the Legislative Assembly tomorrow; if at least 29 of the 57 legislators approve the decree, the Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) will then have 90 days to hold the nationwide vote, which would be the first referendum in Costa Rican history.

Arias' announcement came one day after TSE officials released a statement that said it is legal to hold a referendum on CAFTA. The statement, a response to a query from former legislator and CAFTA opponent José Miguel Corrales, gave him and other organizers the green light to begin collecting the required signatures, a process they would have had as long as nine months to complete.

The President's decision, which has the support of the five pro-CAFTA parties in the assembly, speeds up the process. Rodrigo Arias, the President's brother, spokesman and legislative liaison, said at the press conference that the assembly will have only one session to vote on the decree.

The assembly will continue discussing the pact but cannot vote on it unless voter turnout for the referendum does not meet the required minimum, still to be determined.

President Arias, who has long maintained that the only place for a decision on CAFTA is the assembly, admitted Friday that the TSE statement caused him to change his mind.

“It surprised some of us – including me,” he said of the ruling. However, he praised it as “a historic decision… a new era in our democratic development.”

Costa Rica is the only signatory country of CAFTA that has not ratified the pact, signed in 2004.