Women's Club of Costa Rica 70th Anniversary Luncheon
11 a.m., Aurola Holiday Inn, San José, advance ticket purchase. Info: 2268-3748, 2249-2345, www.wccr.org.

Art by Barbara Mitchell and Montero Siegele
“Journey to the Old West,” paintings, through Feb. 19, Centro de la Cultura Cartaginesa, Cartago. Info: 2592-3070.

Bonsai
With Japanese expert Tetsuo Kajiwara, one-day classes, through February, Lankester Botanical Garden, Dulce Nombre de Cartago, road to Paraíso. Info: 2592-1806, vera.bonilla@ucr.ac.cr.

Count again: Workers at the Supreme Elections Tribunal begin a manual recount Tuesday morning.

Ronald Reyes | Tico Times

Elections officials announced Tuesday that they will be manually recounting at least half of the votes in Sunday's presidential election after finding discrepancies in some of the ballots.

Luis A. Sobrado, president of the Supreme Elections Tribunal, said he doubts it could alter the final count, but is undertaking the process “to remove any doubts or suspicions.”

Any number of reasons could prompt the recount, Sobrado said, including discrepancies between the tally of voters and the number of ballots, questionable markings or the missing signatures of a sufficient number of election observers.

“We expect one vote to be invalid here, another to be void over there, but in the end, we think it would be unusual for (the recount) to modify the results,” Sobrado said.

However, the results for the Legislative Assembly “could generate surprises” in the coming week as more than 10 percent of the congressional vote has yet to be counted, Sobrado said. The results of the vote for the legislature will be confirmed after elections officials complete the presidential count, which he expects to take place next week.

As of the latest tallies, National Liberation Party candidate Laura Chinchilla had 46.7 percent of the vote, Citizen Action Party candidate Ottón Solís had 25.1 and Libertarian Movement's Otto Guevara had 20.9. The 57-seat Legislative Assembly was split with 23 going to the National Liberation Party, 11 to the Citizen Action Party, 10 to the Libertarian Movement, six to the Social Christian Unity Party, four to Accessibility Without Exclusion and one each going to the Broad Front Party, the Costa Rican Renovation Party and the National Restoration Party.

Speaking on the Radio Monumental on Tuesday, President Oscar Arias said Costa Rica's voting in its first female president “a dream come true.” 

The election of Costa Rica's first female president has been a cause for applause in the region, stirring some nations to wonder when they will be next.

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said his country is ready for the milestone. “I think so, that there could be a woman president (here),” he told newswire AFP, adding that “Guatemala has changed a lot after its signing of the peace (in 1996)” that ended a 36-year civil war.

Costa Rica's neighbor to the north, Nicaragua, is among the Latin American nations that have already had female leaders, on a growing list that includes Argentina, Chile, Panama, and briefly, Bolivia and Ecuador. Nicaragua's current vice president showed optimism that the Chinchilla win will improve relations between the two countries, which have sometimes cooled during the administration of Oscar Arias.

“Without a doubt with the new president of Costa Rica relations with Nicaragua will harmonize much more,” Vice President Jaime Morales said, according to the newswire EFE. Morales said friction between Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Arias have not been “rows, but rather conceptual differences of criteria and personality.”

The vice president also took the opportunity to compliment the Tica president-elect's character and her looks.

“Laura is a disciple of president Arias, although she has her own trajectory…. She's very competent, pleasant, frank, with a nice presence and pretty at that,” Morales said.

The United States Embassy in Costa Rica said congratulations in a statement and said the recently arrived Ambassador Anne S. Andrew “hopes to forge a strong relationship with the president-elect, her cabinet and new members of the Legislative Assembly, with the goal of confronting our common challenges and advancing toward our shared interests.”

A Colombian government communiqué extended Chinchilla “best wishes for a successful administration.”

Spain congratulated Costa Rica, too. Its governing Spanish Socialist Workers Party issued a statement saying it is confident Chinchilla will continue the “social democratic policies” that will enable the country “to continue leading one of the soundest progressive projects of Central America,” Europa Press reported.

Sunday's elections process received good marks from international observers as well. “Citizens made their choice at the polls, participating actively from the opening until the closing of the voting stations,” María Emma Mejía, head of the mission sent by the Organization of American States, said in a statement. “ From the day I arrived, Costa Rica gave yet another piece of proof of civility and democratic responsibility.”

The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture's (IICA) general director, Víctor Villalobos, called on the international community on Tuesday to invest in a post-earthquake agricultural program in Haiti.

The new plan will cost $700 million, IICA estimates.

Institute officials said the money will be used for 20 different projects in Haiti, including buying seeds and farming equipment, repairing and modernizing damaged fields, reforesting and establishing farmer credit and insurance programs. Funds will also help move some of the 1.5 million city dwellers that were displaced by the Jan. 12 earthquake to rural areas.

Beginning Wednesday, representatives of Haiti's Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development Ministry will be visiting Italy, Canada, and the United States in the company of IICA and United Nations officials to promote projects among top level officials of these countries' international cooperation and agriculture agencies.

“One dollar invested in agriculture and rural Haiti profits more (people) more quickly than one invested in any other non-agricultural sector,” Villalobos said of the devastated industry.

According to IICA, 55 percent of Haitians already live in rural areas, the highest proportion of rural residents of any country in the Americas. Still, its principal agricultural products record the worst growth rates in the region.

For example, in the United States, one hectare of planted corn yields approximately 10 tons. Between 2003 and 2007, the same size crop in Haiti yielded less than one ton.

Villalobos said an investment in Haitian agriculture improvements can “help generate employment, income and better living conditions for the poorest sectors of this population.”

Since the earthquake, IICA has set up a station in the Dominican Republic to assist Haiti's agriculture ministry.