Oh the ironies, Oscar Arias' Manuevers to Get a Second Term as President of Costa Rica

[magbana]

Oscar Arias' first presidency was in the late 1980's, but his path to his second presidency demonstrates that this guy knows how to manuever or, if you will, slither.

Second presidency

The Costa Rican constitution had been amended to include a clause which forbade former presidents seeking reelection. Arias challenged this in Sala IV, the Constitutional Court, which initially rejected his application. Arias then used his considerable political connections to alter the Court´s composition and, with a majority of members favorable to his cause, succeeded at the second attempt to have the constitution changed. Arias - to the surprise of no one - announced in 2004 that he intended to run again for president in the February 2006 general elections. Though for years private polling companies and several news media published polls predicting Arias would win by a wide margin, the election was initially deemed too close to call. A month later, on 7 March, after a manual recount, the official results showed Arias beat center-left contender Ottón Solís by 18,169 votes (1.2% of valid votes cast). He took the oath of office at noon on 8 May 2006 at the National Stadium. In his speech on 15 September 2008, he admitted that he was tired because of the excesive criticism of his opponents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Arias