Costa Rica's Assembly, President

Tico Times, 2 de mayo, 2007
http://www.ticotimes.net/dailyarchive/2007_05/0502071.htm

By Katherine StanleyTico Times Staff
kstanley@ticotimes.net
One year into the 2006-2010 legislative and presidential terms, the country's lawmakers and President Oscar Arias took stock of their work thus far and set goals for the year ahead during yesterday's May 1 ceremonies.
As it does every year on Costa Rica's Labor Day, a national holiday, the Legislative Assembly elected its leaders for the coming year – a process that took five hours. Despite a late-hour effort by opposition parties to unseat last year's legislative president, Francisco Pacheco of the leading National Liberation Party (PLN), he was re-elected with 30 votes.
As the rest of the votes rolled in, it proved to be a very good day for Liberation, which won five of the six assembly leadership roles. Last year, the party held four of these spots.
Liberation's José Angel Ocampo was elected assembly vice-president, Xinia Nicolás was elected secretary, Sandra Quesada was elected first substitute secretary and Yalile Esna was elected second substitute secretary. The second secretary position was filled by Guyón Massey, of the National Restoration Party.
Arias was scheduled to give his annual Labor Day address at 3 p.m., but the day's events lagged far behind schedule and, at press time, an assembly packed with government officials and members of the press was still waiting to hear him to present this summary of his administration's accomplishments since he took office on May 8, 2006.
A statement released by Casa Presidencial offered a preview of points to be touched on in the speech, including the success of his educational grant program, “ Avancemos” (“Let's Get Ahead”). The President also shared these points with his Cabinet members during a traditional Labor Day lunch.
“The eight plans that we proposed during the (presidential) campaign are being fulfilled; for example, this government is full of honest and humble politicians who are working for Costa Rica,” Arias said in the statement. “In this sense, we have given back trust to Costa Ricans.”