REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES DECLASSIFIED Authority Statele ter lahz eyme NARS Date 24981. Desp. No. 402 American Embassy, San José December 18, 1947.
CONFIDENTIAL Electoral Register (in which office the slates of candidates are actually filed. or the National Republican Party, although it was subsequently published in an inconspicuous place in the Official Gazette, where it was apparently overlooked by both the Director of the Register and the National Republicans.
Meanwhile, the Director of the Register had ruled that, since the code did not specify any hour, that slates of candidates might be filed until midnight of December 9th and so informed representatives of the National Republican Party.
The Opposition, abiding by the decision of the Tribunal, filed its slates for the PARTIDO OBRERO and the PARTIDO REPUBLICANO shortly before pom. on the 9th, while the National Republican Party, in conformity with the decision of the Director of the Register, did not file its slates for the PARTIDO LABORISTA and the PARTIDO AGRICOLA until shortly before midnight.
Next day a tempest in a teapot broke, with the Opposition claiming that the registration of the LABORISTA and AGRICOLA slates had been illegal and in violation of the decision of the Tribunal concerning the deadline of filing. The National Republican Party, on the other hand, claimed that it had followed the interpretation of the Register and hence its registraticn was valid. Obviously, the discrepancy was merely lack of coordination between the Tribunal and the Register. In order to put neither in an unfavorable light, the President thereupon promptly referred the subject to Congress, presently in extraordinary sessions, for final decision. This, naturally, was hardly acceptable to the Opposition, for the reason that the administration, combined with VANGUARDIA, has a voting majority and hence the congressional decision was bound to favor the National Republican contention that the registration of its two ghost parties was legal. The group of Opposition deputies thereupon walked out of Congress, refusing to participate in any discussion concerning the interpretation of article 123 of the Electoral Code. The Spanish text, together with a translation of a public statement issued by the opposition congressional group on the subject is enclosed.
It must be stressed that no one expects a single one of the registered candidates of the four ghost parties to be elected. Their filing of slates is nothing but a part of the tug of war between the National Republican and opposition Parties. The former to retain numerical (i. e. Majority)
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