By Alexander Villegas and Alvaro Murillo
SAN JOSE, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Right-wing populist Laura Fernandez has a commanding lead and is nearing victory in Costa Rica’s general elections on Sunday, and her ruling party is set to gain a majority in Congress.
Fernandez has 49.61% of the votes with 69.40% of ballots counted. Fernandez was leading in opinion polls before Sunday’s election and only needed 40% of the vote to win outright and avoid an April 5 runoff.
Alvaro Ramos, a centrist economist and her closest contender, has 32.56% of the vote, while Claudia Dobles, a progressive architect and former first lady, has just 4.58% of the vote.
Fernandez’s party, the Sovereign People’s Party, is projected to have a majority of 30 seats in the 57-seat Congress, up from its current eight seats.
Fernandez is President Rodrigo Chaves’ protege and former chief of staff and has pledged to continue Chaves’ tough security policies and anti‑establishment message.
Earlier on Sunday, parks and plazas near voting centers around the country were filled with flag-waving supporters and election observers as voting got underway.
In Esparza, a small town in the coastal province of Puntarenas where Fernandez was born, the cyan-colored flags of her party outnumber those of other parties and candidates.
Ricardo Mora, 59, grew up in Esparza and said he and his 11 siblings supported the centrist Ramos’ National Liberation Party (PLN) most of their lives, but all but two of them are now backing Fernandez because they were fed up with corruption scandals and bad governance.
“They say whoever leans against the best tree gets the best shade, and she’s in the president’s shadow,” Mora said, adding that he hopes for a second Chaves presidency after Fernandez.
While consecutive reelection is not allowed in Costa Rica, Fernandez has vowed to include Chaves in her government and positioned herself as the continuity of his mandate.
Mora believes a supermajority in Congress is an important “emergency measure” to enact changes, pointing to El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele as an example of how to reduce crime.
“After that, we can change them because too much power is bad for people,” Mora said.
CRIME, HEALTH MAJOR ISSUES
Polls show about a quarter of the 3.7 million voters were undecided, with the largest group being between the ages of 18-34.
Gabriela Segura, a 25-year-old business administrator, said one of her biggest concerns in this election was rising crime, but also wanted a candidate that would protect the country’s public health system.
Despite homicides surging to an all-time high during his term and multiple corruption investigations, Chaves remains deeply popular, with a 58% approval rating according to University of Costa Rica’s CIEP polling.
Segura said she was worried about the implications for democracy in this election because of some of Fernandez’s proposals, including limiting civil liberties to fight crime.
“I hope young people come out and vote because these are the most important elections. We’re afraid of losing democracy,” Segura said. “This is my second time voting and I’ve never felt this way because I didn’t appreciate it as much until I saw that freedom might be taken away.”
(Reporting by Alexander Villegas and Alvaro Murillo; Editing by Diane Craft, Chizu Nomiyama and Michael Perry)
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