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With voter apathy at an all time high, the campaign organizers are focusing on transportation issues for election day more than ever.  The 4 major parties Libertarians, PAC, PLN, and PUSC plan on commandeering 40,000 vehicles to take 1 million voters to their polling places.  They will spend 575 million colones ($ 1.15 million) in reimbursing drivers for their fuel expenses.

José Manuel Agüero, chief of transportation for PLN, explains that "The intention to vote is just that, an intention.  We must make it a reality by taking voters to the voting booth. Imagine that, according to our calculations, 50 % of voters need transportation." For this the parties are utilizing all types of transportation: cars, trucks, minivans, busses, boats and even airplanes.  Here is the breakdown:

Libertarian Movement
Budget:  30 million colones. Also, "emergency funds" of 20 million colones.

They identified 12,000 drivers who will lend their vehicles. Each one will pay for  their own food and gas.

Of these, 10,000 are taxis and cargo trucks (formal and informal). There are 60 busses y minivans. Some transportation companies have given free tickets.

You may help by calling 211-0850.

PAC
Budget: 35 million colones for gas coupons.

They have 4,000 vehicles, all volunteers.

They will not hire buses and don’t have contracts with transportation companies.

They hope to mobilize 240,000 voters.

Call 281-2727 to help.

PLN
Budget: 350 million colones

They have 24,000 vehicles (10,000 hired and 14,000 are volunteers).

3,500 are mini-buses or vans. Also there are boats and 1 airplane. For cars who are hired, they pay 25,000 colones for 12 hours.

PLN wants to take 500,000 Costa Ricans to the polls.

To help call the toll free number 800-800-2021.

PUSC
Budget: 160 million colones

5,000 private vehicles and busses for certain. The expect another 10,000 vehicles to be volunteered.

They will hire 120 private busses and buy prepaid tickets from companies that serve commercial bus routes.

There will be 11 regional bus terminals which will make routes between provinces, within provinces, within  counties and between counties.

They hope to take 315,000 people to vote.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 1st, 2006 at 9:38 am and is filed under Costa Rica News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.