Costa Rica voted this Sunday to choose a new president among 25 candidates and without any favorite to take charge of the economic crisis that affects one of the most stable democracies in Latin America.
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According to Eugenia Zamora, president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), the day passed “normally” and there was a very significant influx of voters. “This is a country with a robust democracy and a solid electoral exercise. It’s nice and interesting. It offers learning elements for other countries”, said Isabel de Saint Malo, head of the Electoral Observation mission of the Organization of American States (OAS).
In turn, some 3.5 million Costa Ricans, out of a total of five million, also voted for the 57-member Congress. Of the five candidates with real options, former center-left president José María Figueres, who led the polls with 17% support, was the first to vote.
(Also: Democratic quality in Latin America is in ‘intensive care’)
This is a country with a robust democracy and a solid electoral exercise. It’s nice and interesting. Offers learning elements for other countries
The second in polls was the Social Christian Lineth Saborío, with 13%. Third in the polls, with 10.3%, is the evangelical conservative Fabricio Alvarado, a New Republic candidate, who was in the second round in 2018, but lost to the outgoing president, Carlos Alvarado. The other candidates with options are the right-wing economist Rodrigo Chaves (8.2%) and the leftist José María Villalta (7.6%).
Costa Rica sees its joy overshadowed by a strong financial and social crisis. Unemployment (14.4% in 2021), poverty (23% in 2021) and an economy with public debt equivalent to 70% of GDP set off the alarms of multilateral organizations. The situation worsened with the covid-19 pandemic, which hit tourism hard.
AFP
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