by Rod Hughes

President Oscar Arias’s National Liberation Party got a free hand in electing Legislative Assembly officials, thanks in large part to a pass given them when the Social Christian Unity delegation submitted blank ballots. What the conditions Unity extracted from Liberation lawmakers are, of course, unknown.

Thus, Deputy Francisco Antonio Pacheco received an unprecedented third term as president of the Assembly. The vote was viewed as a victory for the Arias Administration in its efforts to push through it agenda. Of the six directors on the Assembly’s new board, only Deputy Guyon Massey of tiny the National Restoration Party does not belong to Liberation.

Even if the blank ballots enabled a near-clean sweep for Liberation, the Social Christians viewed them as a protest because they felt Liberation had not consulted them sufficiently. But other opposition parties were not buying into that explanation. “They well understand numbers and arithmetic,” scoffed Deputy Francisco Molina, floor leader for Citizen Action Party (PAC).