Thursday is the final day
for political advertising


The 2010 election season is coming to a close. The Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones has decreed that Thursday will be the last day for political advertisements.

The last day for public assemblies was Sunday, so both Laura Chinchilla of the Partido Liberación Nacional and Otto Guevara of Movimiento Libertario held rallies. Ms. Chinchilla assembled her supporters in Paseo Colón, and Guevara was in Desamparados.

The rallies are big production numbers that include entertainment and a speech by the candidate.

Ms. Chinchilla and Guevara are considered to be in the first and second position in the public mind, but Ottón Solís of Acción Ciudadana has taken again to the television with last-minute ads. His support might be underrated.

Guevara has conducted an aggressive campaign. Ms.Chinchilla, as the administration favorite, has had to be more moderate, defending what has taken place in the last four years while she was associated with the Óscar Arias Sánchez administration.

The Tribunal enforces some unusual rules at election time. For example, the sitting president is not allowed to make an endorsement, and Arias has been criticized every time he says or does something positive. Among these events are the inauguration of the San José-Caldera highway and a tour he took through the nearly completed new Hospital de Heredia last week.

The irony of the Tribunal restricting free speech and the right to assemble and promote candidates on behalf of democratic elections has never been addressed.

But alcohol became a topic Monday. A Tribunal spokesman said that anyone who shows up at the polls intoxicated will not be allowed to vote. This is the first year that a dry law has not been put into effect during the days around the election. But the legal grounds for preventing someone from voting because election workers think he or she is intoxicated has not been made clear. Nor has the amount of alcohol that would bar someone from exercising their rights been discussed.

Expats are happy because every four years the first round of elections falls on the same day as the U.S. football Superbowl, and bars and restaurants had to scurry to sidestep the dry law.

In the event that a candidate does not obtain 40 percent of the vote, a second round of voting between the top two finishers will be held in April.


No serious problems seen
from high seas on Pacific


Officials still are expressing concern about unusually high seas on the Pacific coast, but there have been no reports of serious damage.

Both the Fuerza Pública and the national emergency commission said Monday that they were taking steps to handle any problems.

The highest waves are supposed to come around 5:17 p.m. today. The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional estimated the waves at 10.5 feet at that time. The institute also warned of likely flooding in Barrio El Carmen in Puntarenas and at several other locations along the central Pacific.

These are areas that have been flooded before, even though officials are saying that the sea height this week is the highest in five years.  High winds are whipping the waves.


Public defender gets role
in litigating family cases


The Sala IV constitutional court has ordered the Defensa Pública to assist individuals who need the help in handling family legal matters.

The court sided with a woman who said she wanted to divorce a man who is not the father of her child and contract marriage with the biological father. The Defensa Pública declined to handle the case.

The court decision opens up a large, new area for the national public defender. The agency usually represents persons accused of a crime. But the court said its lawyers should handle family matters, too, and without charge.

A.M. Costa Rica/Dennis Rogers

A.M. Costa Rica/Dennis Rogers