OAS observers in Costa Rica.

• Position: OAS - Organization of American States

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On May 8, the nation of Costa Rica will be led by Laura Chinchilla Miranda, the first woman elected president in the history of the country. President Chinchilla has a degree in Political Science from the University of Costa Rica and a Masters in Public Policy from Georgetown University in the United States. She was Vice President of Costa Rica from 2006 until 2008 when she resigned in order to prepare her run for the presidency. On various occasions, she has served as the country's interim president.

Chinchilla Miranda was elected on February 7, 2010 in one of the longest election days of Latin American political history--twelve continuous hours. On that date, an OAS Election Observation Mission was present to witness the presidential, legislative, and municipal elections in this unique country.

Costa Rica has nearly four and a half million inhabitants in an area of close to 20,000 square miles. It has no army and there is a clear division of powers, one of which is the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). The TSE invited the OAS to participate as an observer in these elections, which were the first to be held after Costa Rica's new Electoral Code went into effect. This was also the first time an OAS Mission has observed a presidential election in Costa Rica, which has a long-established democratic culture.

Under the leadership of former Colombian chancellor Maria Emma Mejía, the OAS Election Observation Mission travelled throughout the country with 52 participants from 18 member states, France, China, and Spain. While OAS observation did occur during Costa Rica's referendum on the Free Trade Agreement in October 2007, this was the largest deployment of election observers in the country's history.

Mejía said the observation was significant because citizens see it as a sign of transparency and of the maturity of election authorities. "The invitation says a great deal because it indicates that they are ready for their house to be seen from the inside; they are opening up their hard drive for us to look at. This makes it possible for the Mission's recommendations to be taken into account by the courts themselves, just as in the successful case of Panama where OAS recommendations are already being implemented," she said.

Mejía, who also led the OAS Mission in Paraguay in 2008, highlighted the fact that Costa Rica had new election legislation and that there had been no reports of fraud. "The political parties themselves have...