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Orderly Costa Rica takes vote crisis in stride

Posted on: Friday, 10 February 2006, 16:37 CST

By John McPhaul

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Costa Rica is embroiled in its most contested election of modern times but unlike other Latin American countries where upheaval is rife, the quiet Central American nation is expected to sail through.

A small country with no army, Costa Rica has gone about its daily business with little fuss since Nobel Peace laureate Oscar Arias tied with Otton Solis, his former planning minister, in last Sunday's election.

Both candidates won just over 40 percent but neither is claiming victory until the electoral body gives a final count. That could take 2 weeks but newspapers say partial figures from the recount put Arias, a former president, ahead.

In one of the few signs of anything out of the ordinary, a small group of 20 college students has been holding a sporadic vigil in front of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to protest against Arias and a U.S. free trade deal with Central America he supports.

Costa Rica, a producer of high-quality coffee, sees itself as more orderly than the rest of Central America and avoided the civil wars that tore the region apart in the 1980s.

"It's a country that's accustomed to elections every four years. Clean, crystalline, transparent elections," Arias told Reuters.

A series of corruption cases has tarnished the country's reputation in recent years. Two former presidents were jailed briefly in 2004 on charges of receiving bribes from foreign countries.

Inflation last year was one of the highest in Latin America at 14 percent, and large groups of demonstrators have taken to the streets in recent years to protest at attempts to break the state's telecoms and electricity monopoly.

Other protests are expected if Congress approves the trade pact with Washington, known as CAFTA.

FAIR PLAY

But a tradition of fair play in politics is strong.

"What one expects is that the loser or the losers pick up the telephone and call the winners to say "I'm here to serve, congratulations."

Costa Rica's army was abolished in 1948 by then President Jose Figueres after a civil war.

The history of Costa Rica was already different from that of its volatile neighbors. With no significant gold reserves or Indian populations to exploit, the country was more or less left to its own devices during Spanish colonial rule and it developed strong political institutions from an early date.

Costa Rica is the only country in the region not to ratify CAFTA because of fears it will damage small farmers and local industry.

There have been no claims of serious fraud in the Costa Rican election unlike in countries like Mexico where vote rigging allegations are common.

"There is a lot of confidence in the process of counting the votes by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Costa Rica has many years of experience with elections where the will of the majority is always respected," said Jorge Castro, a retired economics professor.

Costa Ricans are more reserved than many of their neighbors.

"Costa Rica is a culture that avoids confrontation," said Jorge Rovira, a sociologist with the University of Costa Rica's Institute of Social Research.

"Costa Ricans will accept less rather than enter into confrontation," he said.

Some Costa Ricans see the calm after the election as a signal of apathy and resignation in the face of a system plagued by corruption.

"It's probably because this time what we expect is more of the same. There's no assurance that anything is going to change," said Andres Rodriguez, 24, a law office messenger.

Source: REUTERS

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