Ottón Solís A Poor Sport
Ottón Solís, the leader
of the Partido Acción
Cuidadana (PAC), former
presidential candidate
and promoter of the "No"
movement against the
Tratado de Libre
Comercio (TLC), just
cannot take to losing.
That fact was clearly
seen in last year's
presidential elections
when all the votes were
in, Solís refused to
accept defeat and forced
a manual recount of all
the votes, holding the
nation in suspense for
almost a month.
In the end, with the
manual recount,
accusations of
improprieties and all,
Oscar Arias was declared
the winner and president
for a second term.
Today, the nation will
again be held in
suspense, though for not
as long, as Ottón Solís
and a group of "No"
organizers just cannot
accept the will of the
people, the majority,
although by a small
margin, voted in favour
of the free trade deal
with the United States,
joining the rest of
Central America and the
Dominican Republic in
the trade bloc.
As losers, the "No" have
a right to a scrutiny of
all the votes. As losers
of a small margin, the
"No" have the right to
ensure that there wasn't
a miscount or hanky
panky. Costa Rica is
after all a democratic
state.
However, with more than
200 international
observers and 1.000
Tribunal Supremo de
Elecciones (TSE)
employees monitoring,
checking, double
checking and ensuring
that the process went
smooth and without a
hitch, it is unlikely
that the outcome will be
any different than the
last vote count by the
TSE.
Last night Solís refused
to accept defeat and
made charges of
irregularities in the
voting and the use of
public funds by the
government to promote
the "Si" vote, a no-no
as far as the TSE and
the entire referendum
process.
Other leaders of the
"No" movement had a
similar opinion, as a
fired up crown outside
the Fundatec offices -
headquarters of the "No"
- chanted "fraude"
(fraud) and calling the
vote a sham.
For Ottón this is a
second loss in a row.
And once again showed us
what a poor sport and
poor loser he is.
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