After striking a pact with the Partido Accesibilidad Sin Exclusión (Party for Accessibility without Exclusion) and two evangelical lawmakers, the ruling Partido Liberacion Nacional (National Liberation Party) has obtained the necessary votes to take back control of Congress.
With this development, President Laura Chinchilla’s government now holds considerable sway over Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly for her final two years in office. Noting her government’s poor public image and suffering an approval rating of only 26 percent, the president is sure to welcome her party’s success.
PASE was founded to defend and champion the rights of the disabled. The small political party had been part of the Alianza por Costa Rica coalition up until the recent weeks, when it broke off to align itself with one of the largest parties in the country – the National Liberation Party of President Laura Chinchilla.
Under the deal struck between PASE and PLN, the government will take over the Legislative Assembly’s directorate positions, namely president, vice-president and first secretary of the Congress. It will also control all key positions in the financial affairs committee, which approves the national budget.
The pact also means that the government now holds enough seats in the multiparty legislature to govern outright, and is widely expected to bolster President Chinchilla’s bid to improve her government’s public image.
