After the voting this Sunday in the Nosara plebiscite, the initial count shows that the minimum number of votes needed was not reached, meaning that Nosara will remain under the administration of the Nicoya Municipality.

The plebiscite process was overseen by the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE,) and called on all inhabitants of Nicoya to vote on their position regarding the administrative independence of the district of Nosara. A group of people from Nosara wanted to become a Municipal District with complete independence on how to invest their budget since they feel in many ways abandoned by the Nicoya Municipality.

Voters had to answer the following question: Are you in agreement with the creation of the Municipal District of Bocas de Nosara?

With a participation of only 22.50% of the total number of voters, preliminary results which included 90.70% of the tables, showed 2,680 votes for NO and 5,293 votes for YES, the minimum number of votes had to be of 6,130 for Nosara to gain its independence.

The official result, however, will have to be announced by the TSE once the total number of votes is counted and validated, the Supreme Electoral Court has up to 15 days to give the confirmed result.

Information published by news site The Voice of Guanacaste states that “The district of Nosara contributes roughly ¢627 million ($1.06 million) to Nicoya city hall every year, according to estimates by local government authorities”. This amount represents roughly a 10% of the Municipality’s budget.