By Alejandra Garcia on February 6, 2022
Millions of Costa Ricans went to the polls today to elect the new leader who will guide the country for the next four years. According to local media and authorities, the day passed calmly and with a large turnout. Since early in the morning, voters began to line up at the more than 2,000 polling stations to decide who will be the winner among the 25 presidential candidates, a historic number of nominees for the Central American country.
Costa Rica’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal assured that no irregularities were reported during the elections, in which the people will also choose 57 congressmen who will form the Legislative Assembly for the 2022-2026 period.
These elections, marked by an explosion of candidacies, took place amid the absence of a clear favorite and a high rate of undecided voters (just one out of three persons are sure about the decision they’ll make, according to national polls).
Unless there is a major surprise, experts believe that none of the candidates will reach the 40 percent of support needed to avoid going to a run-off election between the two most voted candidates, scheduled for April 3.
Even if it is revealed today or it is necessary to wait until April to know who will be the new president of Costa Rica, it will not be until May 8 until the new president will take office and the power of the Central American country.
Polls show that the candidates with the most support in the surveys (all with less than 20 percent of voting intention) are center-left former president José María Figueres (1994-1998); center-right former vice-president Lineth Saborío (2002-2006), evangelist preacher Fabricio Alvarado, and leftist lawmaker José María Villalta.
“Costa Rica is voting in this national democratic party, which will define our future,” one of the frontrunners, José María Figueres, said as he cast his ballot early Sunday morning.
Outgoing President Carlos Alvarado blandly added that “it is a beautiful election day. We are the strongest democracy in the world and today we reaffirm that with the vote.”
However, experts see this Election Day with low expectations regarding the radical change in direction that the country needs to overcome the effects the pandemic has brought to the national economy. No real dynamic candidate ready to challenge the entrenched neo liberal model stands out in the pack of candidates.
“Although Costa Rica is considered a political paradigm in the region, there are cracks in the country’s economic model, which is more present than ever due to COVID-19,” Costa Rican economist Laura Blanco stressed.
According to World Bank data, the gap between the richest and the middle and lower classes in the Latin American country has been deepening in the last decade. Today it is the 19th most unequal economy in the world.
“Most of the population has neither the skills nor the education level to access high-productivity, high-wage jobs. Only about 15 percent of the people are able to study at universities,” the academic explained during an interview with the BBC.
The National Household Survey (Enaho) revealed that this 2021 two out of 10 households are below the poverty line in Costa Rica.
“It is a sad reality that unfortunately is not new. This indicator has remained practically constant in the last two decades, it just got worse during the pandemic,” Blanco added.
The numbers explain why unemployment and the economy are the Costa Ricans’ biggest concerns, according to a recent survey by the state-run University of Costa Rica ahead of this Sunday’s presidential elections. Both are not far from corruption, which dropped current leader Carlos Alvarado’s popularity to a minimum.
“Instead of making a radical change, the main contenders are betting on introducing very specific reforms that try to revert the deficiencies aggravated in recent years,” she explained.
“Whoever wins this Sunday will receive a country hit by many uncertainties. The person who gets to the Presidential House won’t have the guts to change everything that needs to be changed unless a miracle happens,” Blanco concluded.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English