Former center-left president José María Figueres will contest the second round of the election in Costa Rica with conservative economist Rodrigo Chaves, in a surprising result of the vote held this Sunday (6), which had a record number of candidates and also record abstention. .
After counting 87% of the votes, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) announced that Figueres, 67, from the National Liberation Party (PLN), leads with 27.7%. Former finance minister Chaves, 60, was not among the favorites in the polls but ended up in second place with 16.7% of the vote.
Appointed by the polls as the likely second place, the far-right pastor Fabricio Alvarado, from the Nueva República party, ended up in third place, with 14.8% of the votes.
One of the most solid democracies in Central America, but currently immersed in an economic crisis and in the population’s confidence in politicians, Costa Rica will hold the second round on April 3. The first round had 25 candidates, the highest number in history.
Chaves was Minister of Finance in the current government for just over six months.
“I said during the campaign that Costa Rica deserved to win, and today it started to win. It will definitely continue to win with our triumph,” said the candidate at the campaign headquarters in San José.
“We are now going to the second round. I ask you to leave behind the conflict and the sterile confrontation (…) Mr. José María (Figueres). I ask for a high-level campaign, with proposals and ideas”, he declared.
Figueres ruled Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998 and is the son of the emblematic former president José Figueres Ferrer, who abolished the army in 1948.
The election also defines the 57 deputies of the Legislative Assembly, and the first calculations point to a highly fragmented Parliament.
With the population discouraged due to the economic problems that affect the country and accusations of corruption among politicians, the abstention rate was 40%.
The new ruler will have to face a serious financial and social crisis. Unemployment (14.4% in 2021) and poverty (23% in 2021) rates and an economy with public debt equivalent to 70% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) provoked alerts from multilateral organizations.
The situation has worsened with the Covid-19 pandemic, which has severely affected tourism, one of the main sectors of the country.
In addition, in the last 13 years, two former presidents have faced corruption trials (one was convicted), and in 2021, two cases of multimillion-dollar irregularities in the public works sector exploded, with ministers involved.
The current president, Carlos Alvarado, highlighted, however, the democratic solidity of the country.
“We are among the strongest democracies in the world and today we reaffirm this with our vote (…). Other countries do not have this free option. We have had uninterrupted elections since 1953,” he said.
