It's official: the “yes” vote won in the nationwide referendum on the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) held Oct. 7, according to the Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE).

In a lengthy, detailed statement issued yesterday, the Tribunal released the results of its manual vote count. It declared that 1,572,684 citizens voted in the country's first referendum (59.2% of eligible voters); 8,609 of these ballots were null and 1,603 were blank. Of valid votes, “yes” side won 805,658 and the “no” side won 756,814.

Since more than 40% of eligible voters turned out, the results of the election are binding, according to a statement from the TSE.