Costa Rica: Elections Head To Round Two, Dark Horse In The Lead

Costa Rica’s presidential election this Sunday failed to give any candidate the necessary 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff election. What’s more, the leader, with just under 31 percent of the vote is a dark horse candidate. Early January polls showed center-left candidate Luis Guillermo Solís of the Citizens Action Party having only 5 percent support.

Solís is an interesting candidate. He has never been elected to office before. He is an historian by training. His government experience consists of serving as a diplomat to Panama in Costa Rica’s foreign ministry.

Solís and his Citizens Action Party are running on a platform of fighting corruption within government, improving infrastructure, overhauling the nation’s universal health care system and shoring up Costa Rica’s social security programs.

Solís has also campaigned on the idea that government must work more closely with the people, rather than just within political parties. A New York Times report quotes him as saying:

“I am not just talking about alliances with parties, because the people want dialogue. We parties are a limited expression of society.”

Reuters further quotes Solís as saying:

“Costa Rica’s time has come. From coast to coast, the rising wave has become a great tsunami that has washed away traditional politics forever.”

Solís holds a narrow lead over incumbent party candidate Johnny Araya, who has 30 percent of the vote. According to the New York Times, Araya’s centrist National Liberation Party has been rocked by a series of scandals surrounding current president Laura Chinchilla.

According to an Inside Costa Ricareport, President Chinchilla – Costa Rica’s first female president – currently has the lowest approval rating of any Costa Rican president in the last 20 years. President Chinchilla is not eligible for re-election due to Costa Rica’s term limits.

Araya has tried to distance himself from the scandals plaguing the Chinchilla presidency while still asking for support based on the strength of the country’s economy. A Reuters report quotes Araya as saying, “We represent the safe road, the responsible road, to maintain political, economic and social stability in Costa Rica.”

Both candidates will be vying for voters who supported third place candidate, Jose Maria Villalta of the leftist Broad Front Party, who won 17 percent of the vote, and those of 10 other candidates.

If Solís is able to win the April 6 Costa Rica runoff election, it will be the first time that a third-party has been in power in the country that boasts Latin America’s second largest economy.

The winner of the runoff election will take office May 8. According to Inside Costa Rica, the winning candidate will need to deal with a split congress and will have to build coalitions to get much done.