greatreporter.com, December 31st, 2006
Area: 51,100 sq km (19,730 sq mi)
Population (2006 est.): 4,274,000
Capital:
San José
Head of state and government:
Presidents
Abel Pacheco de la
Espriella and, from May 8 Óscar Arias
Sánchez
Contradicting most preelection polls, which placed
Óscar Arias
of the National Liberation Party (PLN) as the clear frontrunner over third-time candidate
Ottón Solís
Fallas
of the Citizens Action Party (PAC) in the Feb. 5, 2006, presidential election, the results were so close that the winner was not declared until a painstaking manual recount had been concluded a month later. The victor was
Arias
, with 40.9% of the vote, narrowly defeating
Solís
, with 39.8%.
Otto
Guevara
of the Liberation Movement (ML), came in third, with 8.4% of the vote. The winning party in 2002, the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), practically disappeared from the radar screen as a result of a series of corruption scandals and the unpopularity of the incumbent,
Abel Pacheco
. Voter abstention reached a new high of 34.8%. Municipal elections were held in December.
Arias
, who served as president from 1986 to 1990, had played a key role in negotiating peace agreements in the bloody conflicts that were afflicting other countries in Central America at that time, and he was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize for Peace. His party won 25 of the 57 seats in the unicameral legislature, while the PAC won 17 and the ML 6. The once-powerful PUSC was reduced to a mere five seats, and minor parties divided the remaining four seats. Notably, 22 of the 57 seats, or 38%, went to women.
While campaigning,
Arias
promised to pursue ratification of the stalled Central America–Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), which
Costa Rica
alone among the countries of Central America had failed to sign.
Arias
also promised to push through a tax- and fiscal-reform bill that had been languishing for years and vowed to reduce corruption, slim down some of the autonomous public agencies, and break up the state telecommunications monopoly held by the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE).
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