Costa Rica ? Costa Ricans voted Sunday in favor of joining the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States, the president said, but opponents of the pact refused to recognize the results.

With 89 percent of the precincts reporting, nearly 52 percent of votes backed the agreement, which sharply divided the country between those arguing it would bring continued economic development and critics who feared it could hurt farmers and small businesses.

“Costa Rica’s people have said ‘yes’ to the treaty, and this is a sacred vote,” President Oscar Arias said.

But Eugenio Trejos, the leader of the pact’s opposition, said he would not recognize the results and vowed to wait for a manual recount scheduled to begin Tuesday.

Costa Rica is the only one of the six Latin American signatories to the trade deal, known as CAFTA, that has yet to ratify it. The pact is in effect in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.