Costa Rica Still Without a President-Elect
Costa Rica still without a president. It is now two days since the Tribunales Supremo de Elecciones (TSE) finished the manual count of the votes of February 6, placing former president and Noble peace prize winner, Oscar Arias, ahead of Ottón Solís and the TSE has yet to make the results
"official".

The scenario is similar to the Bush-Gore 2000 where the chief executive was deemed to have edged out the challenger, but alleged anomalies at many polling stations put off proclamation of a winner.

The TSE has been under pressure and charges by the Partido Acción Cuidadana (PAC) leader Solís over improprieties over the scrutinization of 712 of the 6.193 voting stations and the going missing of some 5.000 "papeletas" (votes). In total the TSE is dealing with 599 complaints placed by the PAC and other parties.

The TSEs ays it will not designate a president-elect until it resolves all procedural complaints.

There is no deadline for the ruling on the allegations of "irregularities", however, a proclamation by the TSE is expected before the end of this month.

The final vote count placed Arias 18.165 votes ahead of Solís who was publicly criticized by officials of the TSE, called a "cry baby", when before the manual vote count was terminated, Solís made the charges on national television Monday night. Officials at the TSE quickly responded to the charges.

The manual vote count was finished Wednesday afternoon.