Costa Rica holds CAFTA referendum
For the first time in its history Costa Rica will decide a matter of national policy by holding a national referendum to decide whether or not to subscribe to Central America Free Trade Agreement.
Costa Rica CAFTA, TLC SI o NO
The polls are set to open tomorrow morning, with both options in a virtual tie. The race is too close for a survey to determine with certainty who is ahead at this point. The only valid verdict will be the one to be announced by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, tomorrow at 8:30pm.
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Filed under: Costa Rica News on October 6th, 2007
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This will be one of the most internationally observed political events in the region’s history.
3:30pm and it seems the referendum has been going on with no disturbances. Unlike many countries in the world, where elections are a source of fear and violence.
In about half an hour I will go vote at the public school a couple blocks away from my home. I’m interested in observing the system and how it is being audited to ensure that the majority’s choice is what this referendum will reflect.
The OAS declared earlier today that the referendum was being carried out in an orderly and highly civil manner. Many international observers have made their way to Costa Rica this weekend to witness democracy in action.
After casting his vote this morning at the Carlos Sanabria public elementary school, in Pavas, President Oscar Arias made way home to give declarations to the press.
He spoke about his views on the complementary legislation that has been drafted internally to be adjoined with CAFTA, “La Agenda Complementaria”. His view is that the referendum will also decide the future of the complimentary legislation. If “Si” wins, Arias expects the opposition to accept this legislation as part of the countries decision.
This afternoon he had lunch with a group of international observers in Zapote.
I’ve gone to the school and voted. The process was quite easy, just typed my ID number into a special government internet page, and it told me exactly where I had to go. There were plenty of security, support, and information staff present around the school making sure that the voting went smoothly.
In the next few minutes the polls will be closing and the data collection process will begin. Each voting center has to do a local accounting of ballots, then seal them and send them into the central voting center. The count for each voting center is entered in a national information system, and aggregated live.
The first partial vote count will be announced by the central information system at the Electoral Tribunal at 8:30pm. The final manual count will be done for the rest of the month up to the 20th of October.
The referendum will then only be binding if voter turnout is above 40%. Currently 2.6 million Costa Ricans were eligible to vote.
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[...] Rica voted in favor of approving TLC, the Tratado de Libre Comercio, known in English as CAFTA, the Central America Free Trade Agreement. Since then, the Legislature has debated the laws necessary to fully enact the TLC. Among the [...]