by Rod Hughes
A poll by the firm Demoscopia, done for the daily newspaper Al Dia and published Monday, Aug. 6, shows an even stronger advantage for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) than the previous Unimer poll published in the daily La Nacion last week. (See article 1279 for Unimer poll results.)
If the October referendum were held today, the survey maintains, 54.5% would vote to approve CAFTA against only 45.5% voting no. Demoscopia gave sample ballots to 908 persons of the 1,200 interviewed who said they definitely intended to vote Oct. 7. This is a more focused method than Unimer’s more conventional technique.
Demoscopia’s nationwide survey carries an error margin of plus or minus 2.8 points.
In the same issue of Al Dia, publisher Edgar Fonseca, writing on the op-ed pages, praised scientist/astronaut Franklin Chang’s statement last week backing CAFTA. Fronseca called Chang’s declaration “well-thought and opportune.”
He quoted the astronaut’s statement that “We live on an interconnected planet and we have no choice but to play that game. Or go to another planet.” Fonseca contrasted this with what he called the “isolationism” of the “mentors and oracles of Caracas, Managua and Havana,” referring to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Cuba’s Fidel Castro who have all urged Costa Rica’s voters to just say no to CAFTA.