"We say to PAC: welcome to the biparty banquet". Said the president of PLN, Francisco Antonio Pacheco, on election day, recognizing the good results turned in by PAC and the collapse of PUSC in the legislature.

But this raised some hackles on the other side of the table.  Epsy Campbell, current representative and vice-presidential candidate is sure that being the second most numerous bloc in the Assembly is not the same as being part of a bi-party system.  " I would tell PLN: welcome to the multiparty era, with a PAC as the most important force and PLN in its twilight years.  We will never be in a two party system, with two parties but power structure. "

Alberto Salom, a campaign leader and a sure member of the new Legislature also assured the public that this era is over. "This thing where 2 parties understood each other behind the curtains and negotiated under the table is over. What we called PLUSC is dead. Now there are 2 very strong parties, but PAC represents clear interests and a tranparent ideology, before a PLN which has stood for corruption and a consolidation of wealth."

PAC leaders state that they will not "cogovern", but will contribute with "public negotiations that benefit the majority, not the elite."  Epsy Campbell said, "we will contribute and will not continue to divide the country believing that we own the truth and that the other side is evil. There are good people in all of the parties and we guarantee that we will help move the country forward. "

Despite early claims of victory by some PLN officials, and veiled calls for capitulation from Oscar Arias, the ballot counting continues to be close. No winner is expected to be clear until the last tables are counted.  In yesterday’s count, Solís won by 9,894 votes, making the overall difference 4,485 in favor of Solís. 

37.96% of the tables have been counted (2340 polling stations).  The cumulative total is 261,233 for Arias and 265,718 for Solís.

The largest luxury liner in the world, the Queen Mary II will dock in the Pacific port of Caldera on Friday. With 2,600 passengers and 1400 crew, this is the second attempt at docking in Costa Rica for the first time.  On January 11th, the ship was scheduled to dock in Limon, but high seas prevented the stop. The ship left Valparaíso, Chile on February 8th, went to Perú (Callao), Ecuador (Esmeralda), and Panamá (Fuerte Amador).

On Friday the ship will leave Caldera for Acapulco (México) and will end the 14 day cruise in Los Angeles.

The "Queen Mary II" has 5 restaurants, 4 bars, 5 pools, a conference center, a miniature golf course, gymnasium, casino, cabaret, discoteque, cinema theater and library. The ship is due to return to Caldera March 13th.

Talk about going into the Lion’s den! The atmosphere in Iran is more charged than ever as yesterday a German newspaper published a caricature of the Iranian players warming up in suicide bomber jackets.  The situation was already hot with the US and UN threatening sanctions and rattling sabres.  Which of course meant religious leaders stirring up emotions for a holy war and nationalistic hardliners stirring up emotions for the people to do their patriotic duty. Now all of those motions will be added to the fan’s support of their soccer team which was ridiculed in the cartoon.  And everything in that cauldron should be nice and bubbly when the Costa Rican national team visits Tehran on March 1st. 

Al Dia interviewed players and officials about the situation.

"We have gone to other countries in similar situations and we have never had any problem", pointed out José Joaquín Aguilar, of the Selections Commitee.  He did not want to admit that the Federation was in it for the money, only saying that , " The friendly has favorable economic and athletic conditions".  He said that currently there was no reason to suspend the trip, although they were monitoring the situation.

Aguilar, speaking on behalf of the Costa Rican Football Federation said that they follow FIFA’s principle of leaving aside cultural and political differences on the pitch  " Football is a way to look for peace.", he said.

Labor Minister Fernando Trejos is filing a complaint over the plans of representative José Francisco Salas, and his twin brother Carlos, both of the Authentic Heredian Party.  José Francisco Salas is giving up his post as of Wednesday and will allow his twin brother to take over.  This is possible because Carlos was in second place on the party’s ballot in the 2002 elections.  José Francisco made the announcement last week saying it was a gesture of fraternal love, allowing his brother to live his dream of being in the legistlature. 

However Trejos is denouncing that this is an abuse of public funds. In the first place, this means that José Francisco is giving 3.2 million colones to his brother, which is what Carlos will earn in the 2 months remaining of the term.  Although on the other hand the state would have to pay that money no matter which brother is in office.  The real kicker is that Carlos Salas Ramos is a pensioner of the Magisterio Nacional (the teacher pension fund) under the regulation of law 2248. This law permits the person to retire with a pension equal to the highest salary of their last 5 years.

According to Trejos, Carlos Salas retired in June 1996 and suspended his retirement to become a political adviser to his brother reporting a salary of 279,538 colones.  In August of 2005, Carlos asked the labor ministry to review his pension, taking into account his salary as legislative consultant - 999,000 colones.  Which will be his new pension when he leaves office in May of this year.  A hefty tripling of his pension in just 4 years of "work".

However, if he becomes a legislator, he will earn a monthly salary of 1,647,671 colones. And he can immediately ask for his pension to be reviewed again.  Trejos clarified that the legislator has not necessarily asked for the review or may not intend to ask for it.  However since it is a possibility it was his duty to make public the potential for an abuse of public funds to occur.