Sunday, November 8, 2009

That 2007 October Referendum in Costa Rica

As a graduate student of the UN-mandated University of Peace (UPeace) in Costa Rica, I was accredited as an international electoral observer by the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (Electoral Tribunal) in the historic referendum in Costa Rica.

It was not only the country’s first referendum; it was also the world’s first referendum to seek the people’s approval of a free trade agreement or Tratado Libre de Commercio (TLC), in this case the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States.

As I prepared to go out that Sunday morning to begin my task as an observer, my host brother told me he had already voted. That was how I learned that polling stations opened as early as 6AM, particularly in Ciudad Colon.

Most of the 27 international observers from UPeace were staying in Ciudad Colon, from where a bus brought us to Raddison Hotel in San Jose, capital of Costa Rica, for a briefing before going to the polling stations.

Few cars were plying the streets of San Jose. Most shops were closed. Cars were concentrated and parked near the churches and polling stations that day. Most cantones (towns) in Costa Rica have their church, government hall, school, and plaza close together.

Polling stations were inside the schools. Outside there were the unmistakable booths of the YES and NO camps. Vendors of campaign paraphernalia, drinks and snacks were stationed close by.

People were free to express their stance on the issue by wearing campaign T-shirts, pins, caps, even henna tattoos on their faces and bellies. Voters arrived with their kids and family. Children and young people played football inside the school or simply ran and played around. People greeted each other left and right, exchanging pleasantries in congested narrow hallways with a festive, jovial atmosphere.

I had witnessed a huge gathering of those who opposed the TLC in downtown San Jose before the referendum date. It was estimated that more than 100,000 people were in attendance - the biggest assembly in a country of just over four million people.

A human sea wearing the colors pf their flag poured through the main street of San Jose. Music blared from loud speakers and a drum and a bugle corps and people bounced to the rhythms. Vendors sold food and souvenirs. It was a festival yet also a protest against TLC.

People were attentive to the speeches, intermittently applauding with a deafening chant of NO T-L-C. My heart pumped rapidly and I felt weak.

When voting, people had to look at their names on the voters’ list posted outside a polling room. Each list had a maximum number of 700 voters. Only three at a time were allowed inside the polling room. Inside voters presented their national ID or cedula with pictures. Then they got a ballot and filled in their choice.

With my scant Spanish, I managed to chat with one voter outside a school. I asked him if he lives near the polling station. The man said that his place is far, but he was waiting for a bus commissioned by the Electoral Tribunal to fetch and pick voters from far places. I then saw a bus coming with Si (Yes) posters on its front and sides. The man got inside the bus and waved at me when he got his seat.

After visiting three schools, we decided to go to the office of the Electoral Tribunal. We saw a hundred people queuing inside, either to have their new cedula or to renew it.

In the evening, we were invited to the announcement of a preliminary result at the Electoral Tribunal office. Outside the building were about 20 young people who were shouting NO T-L-C. People inside the building were unmindful of what was going on outside. At 9 PM, the tribunal announced that the Si (YES) was leading the No by a slim margin of 51.6% to 48.4% of nearly 60% turn out. The referendum is required to have at least 40% turn out make its results binding.

There was an immediate celebration of the Yes camp at the La Sabana Park but also some reports of burning posters and street signs by unidentified people in the city. But no killings related to the referendum were reported.

The president of the country and a Nobel Peace Laureate, Oscar Arias, called on the No camp for reconciliation. (Arias, who had served as president once before (1986–1990), won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for fostering peace talks that eventually ended the civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua. – Editor) However, some people in the No camp rejected this and cited electoral fraud and anomalies.

To be part of this political exercise in a foreign country especially Costa Rica, was quite an experience – a fair, peaceful and orderly election. Costarrinces take pride in what they have become and what they could offer the world, besides abolition of their army.


Source: http://politics.inquirer.net/view.php?db=1&article=20071030-97694