Costa Rica in election nailbiter; Arias just ahead

[arcos]

Costa Rica in election nailbiter; Arias just ahead

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Battered by government scandals, Costa Rica slid further into uncertainty on Monday when a presidential election that could decide the future of a trade deal with Washington hung by a thread.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias, a former president, held a minuscule lead over rival Otton Solis, whose campaign team suggested they might dispute any loss.

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Buoyed by an unexpectedly good showing, his opponents hinted they would not accept defeat easily.

"Monday is going to be a long day," Epsy Campbell, Solis' running mate, told reporters. "Because after this process we are going to check every one of the votes."

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http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1584119

This is HUGE... Arias was leading in ALL opinion polls, by margins of 20-30%, and now he's winning by just 0.7%. Although you may have heard of Arias as a Nobel Peace Prize winner and someone who confronted Reagan in the 80s, he's a free market supporter, and for Costa Rica he represents the merging of political and corporate power in the same way Bush has.

Please, send us your well wishes so that Ottón Solís comes out ahead when the ballot counting ends. Solís is opposed to the current version of CAFTA and he proposes renegotiating the treaty in a bilateral way, where the Costa Rican agriculture can be protected from US imports, and US interests are also represented. Arias however, supports CAFTA 100%, and his governmnet had an awful record regarding discrimination by sexual orientation.