Costa Rica will go to a runoff between former president Figueres and economist Chaves

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Costa Rica will need a second round on April 3, after a close first round on Sunday won by former president José María Figueres, followed by economist Rodrigo Chaves, who became the great surprise of these elections.

With 63.9% of the tables counted, Figueres, former president between 1994 and 1998, obtained 27.4% of the votes, while Chaves had 16.7%, and the evangelical preacher Fabricio Alvarado had 15.4%, according to the results of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).

Abstentionism reaches 40.7%, which would be the highest number in the country’s history.

The TSE will stop publishing the preliminary results on Monday and, as of next Tuesday, will begin the definitive scrutiny to provide an official declaration of results in the following days.

What is certain is that there will be a second round on April 3 since none of the candidates reached the 40% needed to win this Sunday.

Costa Rica will need a second electoral round to choose the president for the third consecutive election.

Figueres declared himself the first-round winner “by a robust margin”. They thanked Costa Ricans for supporting his project to “lead the rescue and transformation of our Costa Rica”.

“Today was a huge triumph for our democracy. Today Costa Rica won; not even the pandemic could break the civic spirit of our people. The responsibility to move our country forward was stronger. Today we shine again in the world”, declared Figueres.

The 67-year-old candidate criticized the “improvisation” of recent governments and assured that he would work for Costa Rica to “have a government again”.

For his part, Chaves, 60 years old and from the Social Democratic Progress Party, celebrated his passage to the second round and thanked his family and voters for supporting a new party.

“We are going to a second round, yes, the new party, the youngest of this campaign, but we are going to leave behind the fires, the conflict, the sterile confrontation, and I beg you that we will work together to create the consensus to reorient the course of the country and relaunch prosperity”, declared Chaves in a speech.

The candidate, who became the surprise of these elections, thanked the voters for their support in what was “a democratic civic party as few nations in the world can afford”.

“Our challenges as a country and society are enormous. We need a new strong, united government to get ahead together in the face of the challenges and enormous promises that this blessed homeland holds. We will get through this, and we are going to get through it well,” he declared.

Chaves promised initiatives to improve the country’s economy and promised that he would govern with justice for all the population if he became president.

According to the electoral authorities, this Sunday’s electoral process was carried out calmly and without serious irregularities.

The 6,767 ballot boxes located in the country closed at 18.00 local time (00.00 GMT) on Sunday after a 12-hour election day.

A record 25 presidential candidates participated in Sunday’s elections, and 3.5 million people were called to vote to elect the president and the 57 deputies that make up the Legislative Assembly for the period 2022-2026.

All candidates acknowledged the results issued so far by the electoral tribunal.

The OAS Electoral Observers Mission highlighted that during the day, there was order and confidence of the actors in the country’s electoral process and that by midday, it had received no reports of irregularities.

With information from EFE