The 3.5 million inhabitants of the Central American country will elect the president and the 57 members that make up the Legislative Assembly in elections governed by the large number of candidates. According to the polls, 19 of them do not exceed 3%, but none of the remaining six would reach the necessary votes to win in the first term. In addition, despite having dropped in the last week, the number of undecided would exceed 30%.
This Sunday in Costa Rica the elections will be held where the successor of Carlos Alvarado and the 57 seats of the Legislative Assembly will be elected for the period 2022-2026. However, they will have the particularity of being the elections with the largest number of presidential options in history.
The range of presidential candidates will be made up of 25 candidates, including personalities from different fields, which shows the strength of the Costa Rican democratic system. Among them there is a former president, a former vice president, a former official, two evangelical preachers, journalists, doctors and economists.
However, the excessive diversity is also a problem for the electorate, which is confused and discouraged by the large number of participating parties, causing 33% to remain undecided less than 24 hours before the opening of the polls, agreed for six in the morning and that it will close at 6:00 p.m.
After four years where society’s discontent gradually increased due to the tax reform promoted by the head of state, an agreement with the International Monetary Fund and a deteriorating quality of life, the electoral campaign conditioned by the presence of the Covid- 19 and absent from massive activities did not conquer the voters.
This last Friday, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Costa Rica announced that the preparations for the day were complete. There will be 2,152 voting centers and more than 6,700 polling stations. Of those, 80 will be abroad distributed in 42 countries and 52 consulates.
The health security protocol was also drawn up to cast the vote. Before the opening of the voting centers, those in charge will verify credentials and the conditioning of the premises, then they will review the materials and documentation and fill out the opening minutes. “Let’s go calmly, safely to vote, with ID in hand, mask and keeping our distance,” said the president of the TSE, Eugenia Zamora.
Candidates for the presidential chair
The 25 candidates for the Presidency mark an unprecedented milestone in the electoral processes of Costa Rica. However, the latest survey by the Center for Research and Political Studies (CIEP) of the University of Costa Rica indicates that 19 of them will not pass even 3.5% of the votes, but also that none of the other six will to reach the 40% required to emerge victorious in the first round.
“The scenario corroborates the existence of the great uncertainty of the electorate and the high volatility of electoral preferences. The combination of these two factors puts Costa Rican society, once again, in front of an undefined political scenario”, detailed the CIEP. This entity published on Wednesday that the number of undecided fell 9% in the last week, but that it still remained high, oscillating 32%.
José María Figueres -former president between 1994 and 1998-, of the National Liberation Party (PLN), is the one who has the greatest voting intention, but with only 17%, which makes it clear that the second round in April is expected to be inevitable.
Behind them are Lineth Saborío –former vice president between 2022 and 2016- of the Christian Social Unity Party (PUSC) and the evangelical preacher and journalist Fabricio Alvarado (New Republic Party), the only ones who also break the 10% barrier.
The other three candidates above 5% are Rodrigo Cháves (former World Bank official and former Minister of Finance, for the Social Democratic Progress Party), José María Villalta (lawyer and deputy, for the leftist Broad Front) and Eliécer Feinzaig (economist, by the Progressive Liberal Party).
In recent weeks, Figueres appealed to his experience as president to attract people’s intention to vote. He is the son of José Figueres Ferrer, who was president of Costa Rica three times, founded the PLN and became a historical figure in the country by abolishing the army in 1948 after prevailing in the country’s last civil war.
He graduated in industrial engineering from the West Point Military Academy (United States) and his career in politics dates back to 1988. He was Minister of Foreign Trade and of Agriculture and Livestock between 1988 and 1990. He later went to Harvard University to prepare for Public administration.
His political career darkened after being involved in alleged influence peddling for advice to the Alcatel company at the beginning of the century, which led him to go to Switzerland for almost eight years until the justice determined that he had not committed any crime. .
In his government plan, the ideal of targeting a growing economy, with national production and green hydrogen, stands out. He aimed to cut unemployment by half and achieve economic growth of over 5%. In addition to, in international matters, advocating for the preservation of the environment.
For her part, Saborío – one of the four women running in these elections – intends to be the second President of Costa Rica. His speech was based on messages of union and gender equality, with proposals to revive the economy that were criticized by his rivals for being unclear. Also, despite referring to gender parity and improving conditions for women, he totally ruled out supporting the decriminalization of abortion in cases of rape.
The 61-year-old lawyer and PUSC candidate has those four years as vice president on her political resume, where she also held temporary positions as minister of the Presidency, Planning and Justice.
Graduated in law from the University of Costa Rica and with Master’s degrees in different branches from the University of Barcelona and International Cooperation, she has worked in recent years as a consultant and university professor.
Fabricio Alvarado, journalist and evangelical preacher, closes the trio of main candidates in Costa Rica. With a conservative proposal and a speech focused on values and family, he will be for the second consecutive time in presidential elections.
In 2018, his conservatism and adherence to religion elevated him to be a candidate in the elections, where he was reluctant to marry between same-sex couples and feminist demands such as in vitro fertilization, abortion and gender identity.
However, without these issues on the table because they are already legalized -except for abortion-, Alvarado focused his campaign on the economic sphere and on reducing taxes, combating corruption, infrastructure development and educational reform.
Deputy between 2014 and 2018, he was criticized for his precarious academic preparation to be president and for the scarcity of proposals. However, now he arrives as a student in the Collective Communication Sciences career and with a campaign platform that includes reducing unemployment, inserting Costa Rica into the Pacific Alliance and the creation of an “interoceanic green channel” of 16,000 millions of dollars to carry goods and appear on the world geopolitical map.
Which country will receive the winner?
The Alvarado government has been repeatedly accused of being empty of content. After carrying out the fiscal reform – unpleasant, but necessary according to analysts – with which he came to power, he was criticized for the absence of political management.
The image of the youngest president in the history of Costa Rica gradually deteriorated during his term, being positive only in the first half of 2020 for having handled the pandemic well.
Economic reactivation is the main task that the next Head of State will have to carry out, and the candidates’ campaign revolved around this problem. Currently, Costa Rica has 14% unemployment, 44% informal employment and poverty has reached 26%. In addition, it has a debt that climbs continuously and reaches 70.37% of GDP.
However, the Central Bank at the end of January published that in 2021 there was economic growth of 7.6% and that it plans to continue in the upward curve in 2022 -with 3.9%- and in 2023 -with 4%- . The authorities underlined that these indices may reflect improvements in terms of employment.
In 2021, it entered the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), being the fourth Latin American member and the pioneer in Central America, and signed an agreement with the International Monetary Fund for 1,778 million dollars with the aim of stabilizing the numbers .
The negotiation with the IMF also covers a package of initiatives for Costa Rica with a view to reducing spending and increasing income. The most outstanding is a reform of the public employment system, which is frozen in Congress. The candidates have warned that they will propose a renegotiation to the international organization.
with EFE