There will be second electoral return in Costa Rica.
Thanks to the support of around 27.36% of the electorate (brushing 70% of the scrutiny), the center-left leader José María Figueres has been imposed on the first presidential round face to the vote, which will be held in the
First Sunday of April.
In the midst of the socioeconomic difficulties caused by the pandemic, the Ticos have opted for the experience of the national liberation party leader (PLN), which in this way is a great favorites for the second round.
Its rival, of consolidating the advantage in the count, will be the polemic Rodrigo Chaves, a candidate for democratic social progress, who added 16.67% of the support, in close dispute with the evangelical preacher Fabricio Alvarado, with a momentary 15,26
% of the votes.
Alvarado fell defeated in the 2018 vote for 21 points despite winning the current president first.
The change of strategy of it, less belligerent versus social rights, has not reported greater support at the polls.
Chaves has starred in the great surprise of these elections, not only because the surveys placed him in fourth position, but because during the campaign he has been persecuted several scandals.
The most important is the sanction received by sexual harassment during his stay at the World Bank, but also caused a lot of noise the abandonment of the ranks of his party from a good number of leaders, who accuse him of being a follower of Hugo’s policies
Chávez and Nicolás Maduro.
“We are telling them as whenever the party is over,” Chaves repeated to finish his campaign.
Something further down, below 13%, the other great defeated of the day is located, the conservative leader Lineth Savory, at the head of the Christian Social Unit (PUSC), who has not been able to pick up the discontent against the Social Democrat of Carlos
Alvarado
In this way, the vote of punishment is consolidated in Latin America from the 2019 protests, amplified by the two years of pandemic.
In Costa Rica, even, it has been even more forceful: the official candidate Welmer Ramos, of the Citizen Action Party (PAC), has not even reached 1% of the support, the victim of the discredit of the administration led by Carlos Alvarado during the
last four years.
The current first leader happened to Luis Guillermo Solís, also from the PAC.
Figueres has already advanced that from returning to power aims to assert and dialogue with Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista caudillo at the head of neighboring Nicaragua.
For this, he would summon a summit between the presidents of Central America.
At least 100,000 exiles have joined the colony of nicos migrants, which was already the largest in Costa Rica.
Experienced Figueres, who presided over Costa Rica between 1994 and 1998, is the son of another president, the Catalan José Figueres Ferrer, Don Pepe, the politician who dared to dissolve the National Army despite the constant conflicts that have packed the history of Central America
.
The PLN leader has also faced a case of corruption that even made him leave the country.
The abstention, which has exceeded the 40% barrier, is another of the protagonists of the day.