SAN JOSE (Reuters) – Costa Ricans vote on Sunday for a brand new president in what seems to be primed to be an in depth contest between a former chief promising continuity and a pugnacious economist who may pull the nation down an anti-establishment path.
Former World Bank official Rodrigo Chaves has shaken up the race in considered one of Latin America’s most politically secure international locations after confounding expectations to put runner-up in a primary spherical of voting in February.
Taking a confrontational strategy to the media and eyeing referendums to sidestep parliament, Chaves has drawn comparisons with different anti-establishment leaders similar to former U.S. president Donald Trump, Mexico’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele.
A University of Costa Rica opinion ballot on Tuesday put Chaves simply forward going into the second spherical run-off with 41.3% assist, whereas Jose Maria Figueres, a centrist who was president of the nation from 1994 to 1998, had 38.3%.
A victory for Chaves, whose lead has been narrowing, may mark an finish to many years of relative moderation in Costa Rican politics simply because the nation has referred to as in assist from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to assist deal with rising debt.
“The political local weather is in a vital state, it appears to herald the exhaustion of Costa Rica’s social, financial and political mannequin,” stated Ilka Treminio, director of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (Flacso) in Costa Rica.
“Figueres proposes coping with issues institutionally, from inside in a extra conventional type, and Chaves, from the skin, together with his defiant, politically incorrect rhetoric and tone usually related to populist leaders,” she stated.
Since World War Two, Costa Rica has achieved sustained financial progress, rising human growth and common well being protection, turning into some of the secure democracies in the Americas.
But its economic system, which leans closely on tourism and environmentalism, started to indicate cracks across the flip of the millennium that the COVID-19 pandemic later exacerbated.
Poverty afflicts practically 1 / 4 of the 5.1 million Costa Ricans, and unemployment has climbed from beneath 6% to nearly 14% in the previous 20 years. Meanwhile, the finances deficit topped 5% of gross home product (GDP) in 2021, giving the nation a debt/GDP ratio of 70.3%, the best in Central America.
Chaves, who has run on a Trump-flavored motto of “Let’s make Costa Rica the happiest nation in the world once more,” has performed on his years of expertise with the World Bank to painting himself as a secure pair of palms for the economic system.
However, critics have questioned his plan to maintain down the worth of primary staples by decree, and his imaginative and prescient of governing by means of referendum to get round a fragmented legislature.
Figueres, of the National Liberation Party (PLN), has forged himself because the accountable alternative, describing a vote for Chaves as a “soar into the void.” But he and his get together have seen their recognition harm by allegations of corruption, which he denies.
With 19 of 57 seats, the PLN received the biggest illustration in the parliament in the course of the voting in February.
GOVERNABILITY
The undeniable fact that no get together has a majority means the following president is more likely to face a tricky job governing, in addition to finishing up the reforms thrashed out with the IMF to entry a $1.78-billion monetary bundle, analysts say.
Chaves, who has described vital media as “scoundrels,” briefly served as finance minister of outgoing President Carlos Alvarado. Alvarado shouldn’t be allowed to hunt rapid re-election.
Chaves’ marketing campaign has been buffeted by sexual harassment allegations from his time on the World Bank, which he denies.
Neither candidate is very widespread.
A ballot printed by the college final week confirmed 73% of respondents didn’t need both of them to win.
“Both simply air the opposite’s soiled laundry and you do not hear them proposing severe issues,” stated Yorleny Chacon, a 41-year-old financial institution employee in San Jose. “I used to be going to vote for Chaves, however I believe he is actually boastful.”
(Reporting by Alvaro Murillo in San Jose and Diego Ore in Mexico City, Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Dave Graham and Rosalba O’Brien)
