The ex-president Jose Maria Figueres (1994-1998), candidate for the National Liberation Party (PLN), he was the winner of the first round of elections in Costa Rica.
With 72% of the votes counted, it remains to confirm who will accompany him in the second round. Rodrigo Chávez of the Social Democratic Progress party leads the evangelical preacher Fabricio Alvarado (New Republic) by 21,000 votes. Chávez proclaimed himself tonight as the candidate who will compete with Figueres on April 3.
Late this Sunday, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) reported that Figueres obtained 27.2% of the votes, Chávez 16.6%, and Alvarado 15.1%.
The abstentionism stands at 40%, the highest of all elections held in the country since 1953, according to historical data from the TSE.
This Monday, the TSE will finish disclosing the preliminary results and starting next Tuesday, the final count of votes will begin.
Dignity for Women
Figueres highlighted the election result in a speech before a group of militants: “We won this first round by a robust margin and that also gives us a huge responsibility”
He affirmed that they are “one step away from beginning the rescue and transformation” of the country.
“In National Liberation, other political options have their doors open because we want to count on you to help us reform this country that we love so much,” he said.
In addition, he maintained that he will monitor respect for women. “We will have a government again, with dignity for women. Disrespect for the integrity of women will not be hidden with puns.” In this way he alluded to the situation of Rodrigo Chávez, who has been accused of sexual harassment.
Chavez said they will be in the second round. “The new party, the youngest in this campaign, will be in the second round, but we are going to leave behind the conflict, the sterile confrontation, and let us focus together on dialogue and the debate of ideas to create the indispensable consensus” for the country, he affirmed. the leader
Meanwhile, Fabricio Alvarado said that “we have to wait and continue to be excited.”
Parliament
This Sunday’s election marks a disaster of the ruling party, Citizen Action, remaining without representatives in the National Assembly, when in the previous election it obtained nine places.
With the provisional results, the National Liberation Party would have 18 seats, Christian Social Unit 12, Social Democratic Progress 9, New Republic 7, Liberal Progressive 6 and Broad Front 5 (it obtained four more seats than in the previous election). The Social Democratic Progress, New Republic and Progressive Liberal parties had no representatives in the elected assembly in 2018.
how was the election
Costa Rica voted this Sunday to elect a new president to deal with the economic crisis that is hitting one of the most stable democracies in Latin America. In these elections, the 57 deputies of Parliament were also elected. The electoral authorities highlighted a massive turnout at the polls, despite the fact that the campaign was characterized by little citizen enthusiasm.
As expected, no candidate reached the 40 percent necessary to avoid the ballotage.
Figueres, who led the polls, was one of the first candidates to cast his vote in the town of La Lucha, a rural area southwest of the capital San José. “This country has a million and a half people living in poverty and half a million in extreme poverty. We have never experienced these things to such an extent in this country,” said the center-left candidate.
The key to the main candidates was to seduce the mass of undecided who marked the polls. Public opinion studies by the Center for Research and Political Studies of the University of Costa Rica showed that the undecided were above 30 percent. In Costa Rica, voting is mandatory, but there are no penalties for not voting.
Known for being the first country in Latin America in the 2018-2020 global happiness ranking, the joy of the inhabitants of Costa Rica is overshadowed by a severe financial and social crisis. Unemployment of 14.4 percent, poverty of 23 percent and an economy with a public debt equivalent to 70 percent of GDP they set off the alarms of the Tico people. The situation worsened with the coronavirus pandemic, that hit tourism hard, one of its main engines.