Costa Rica’s second presidential round advances

Costa Rica goes to the polls. What is played this Sunday? 4:56 (CNN Spanish) – Costa Rica elects this Sunday president in a second round after an atypical election in February where abstention reached 40%. As of 06:00 am local time, the polls are open, reported the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Just over 3.5 million Costa Ricans are summoned to vote in the second presidential round, which will determine the successor to current President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, of the Citizen Action Party (PAC). Quesada did not compete in these elections because the Constitution of Costa Rica does not allow re-election. In February there were 25 presidential candidates for the first time in the country’s history. This second round faces former President José María Figueres and former Minister of Finance Rodrigo Chaves. In the first round, the highest percentage was for abstentionism with 40.29%, a figure –the highest since 1953– that stalks the candidates in the second round of one of the most stable democracies on the continent but clouded by the loss of confidence of the electorate who, according to experts, do believe in the country’s democratic system, but less and less in the proposals of the political parties. Who are the presidential candidates? None of the presidential candidates in the February 6 contest achieved 40% of the valid votes to avoid a ballot. But former President Figueres, candidate of the National Liberation party, and former Finance Minister Rodrigo Chaves, of the Social Democratic Progress party, reached the highest number of votes. In the first round, Figueres won first place with an advantage of just over 10 percentage points, according to the results of the TSE. He got 27.26%, compared to 16.70% for Chaves. The person who assumes the Presidency of the Republic must have the support of at least 40% of the votes validly cast. None of the February 6 options received that endorsement to be declared the winner. In the elections of February 6, when the representatives of the Legislative were elected, a participation of 63.4% and an abstention of 36.5% was registered.