MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Arias confirmed as Costa Rica's elected president

Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias was confirmed as Costa Rica's next president after his rival Otton Solis conceded defeat following a vote by vote manual recount of the closest and most contested election in the Central American country's history.

"I'm accepting Oscar Arias as the next president of Costa Rica and I call on all Costa Ricans to accept the new president", said Otton Solis.

The presidential election was held February 5 but Mr. Solis party presented at least 600 counts of electoral anomalies and legal challenges, all of which were rejected by the country's Electoral Tribunal

In a short statement Mr. Solis said that "the reaction of some of the (Electoral) Tribunal members has not been in line with the responsibility of their jobs, on the contrary it has been confusing and in extreme disappointing".

Mr Arias, 65, had enjoyed a big lead over his rival in opinion polls but far from the easy victory that had been predicted for him, the February 5 election became Costa Rica's hardest-fought with the two leading candidates virtually neck-and-neck. The elected president finally managed to win by 18.167 votes. The election comes amid wide disillusionment with politics after a string of corruption scandals in the country.

Mr Arias, who was in office between 1986 and 1990, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for spearheading talks that led to the end of civil wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador.

However Mr. Arias not only won a very tight race but has ahead a formidable challenge: he is committed to taking Costa Rica into a controversial free trade pact with the United States, the Central American Free Trade Agreement or CAFTA.

Mr. Solis unexpected electoral showing was based precisely in his demands to renegotiate the free trade treaty which he said in its current form would increase poverty and hurt small scale farmers.

Costa Rica is the only country in the region which has not ratified the deal, which is set to come into effect later this year.