Next President Faces Serious
Challenges
Combating insecurity,
corruption and poverty are the main
challenges for the candidate who wins
tomorrow's election, that is is up for grabs
by nine contenders, three of which really
have any chance of taking a majority of the
votes.
Laura Chinchilla of the Partido Liberación
Nacional (PLN) is the front runner, who is
expected to obtain the required 40% of the
vote, followed by Otto Guevara of the
Movimiento Liberatio (ML), who has been
trailing Chinchilla from the onset of the
elections campaign and third place, Ottón
Solís of the Partido Acción Cuidadana (PAC).
We have to remember that in 2006, Arias was
said to be a shoe in for his second term,
however, Solís who had trailing in the
polls, very similar to this election, came
within a 1.000 votes of taking winning.
However, in 2010, the winning candidate will
face a different Costa Rica of the past, as
the reduction of violent crimes is tops with
Costa Ricans, violence that increased during
the current administration.
Most of the violent crimes and insecurity is
attributed to the growth in the drug trade,
as Costa Rica is more and more being
used as a warehouse by the drug cartels to
move shipments of illegal drugs from
Colombia to North America.
However, experts agree that this problem
cannot be solved with severe penalties but
rather with integral actions in several
fronts, including the reduction of poverty
and the creation of more jobs.
In confronting this situation, the options
proposed by top three contenders are not
encouraging. Chinchilla supports a continued
policy of the current government and Guevara
talks of dollarizing the economy and
reducing the State while Solis, third in the
surveys (center-left), favors fiscal reforms
to improve income and strengthen state
institutions and return to farm subsidies.
At least 2.8 million Costa Rican voters have
been called to elect the president, two vice
presidents, 57 deputies and 498 members of
municipal councils, who head to the polls
tomorrow, Sunday, February 7.
The Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (TSE)
promises to have the results of voting
starting at 8pm Sunday, as the 6.6.17 voting
centres call in or send the results by
internet to the TSE central offices in San
José.
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