U.S. expats in Costa Rica didn't score any coveted seats as delegates to the Democratic National Convention, the U.S. party's overseas branch said.

The convention, to be held in Denver, Colorado, in August, will nominate either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama to run against Republican John McCain in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

Democrats Abroad held their global convention and caucuses in Vancouver, Canada, last weekend. From the Americas region, the caucuses decided to send two expats from Mexico and two from Canada.

Democrats Abroad Costa Rica Chairman Paul Kloes said it was his first convention and at first, it was sheer chaos.

“It was a learning process,” he said. “The complexity kind of took me by surprise.”

Kloes also said getting prized seats is more expensive than a lot of people can afford.

“I have this Guatemalan friend who said (referring to the next Democrats Abroad meeting in Istanbul, Turkey ) ‘Damn, I guess I'm going to have to rob two banks to go there. I only had to rob one to get here.'” he said, joking.

Results of the first-ever global primary, which included votes from expats here in February, are the following: Obama 65.8%, Clinton 32.5%, John Edwards 0.7%, Dennis Kucinich 0.6%, Uncommitted 0.2%, Joseph Biden 0.1%, Bill Richardson 0.1%.

According to Kloes, Democrats Abroad will send 22 delegates – 14 pledged and eight super – to the national convention. Pledged candidates have to vote for their candidate while superdelegates have discretion.

Obama has nine pledged delegates and Clinton five.

Under arcane party rules, each delegate only has half a vote at the national convention, meaning Obama has 4.5 votes and Clinton has 2.5.

Democrats Abroad is the official overseas branch of the U.S. Democratic Party. With members in 164 countries around the globe, the organization holds eight positions on the Democratic National Committee.

The U.S. general election will take place on Nov. 4.