Defeating last-minute competition within his party, Otto Guevara will represent Costa Rica’s Libertarian Movement Party on the presidential ballot for the third time in February, 2010.
He solidified the support of fellow party members with 123 of the 129 votes cast in an internal nomination process held at the Hotel San José Palacio last weekend.
Cecilio Ríos claimed the remaining six votes and Antonio López, former Costa Rican ambassador to Spain and Panama, received no votes.
López said he’s putting the results of the campaign behind him and focusing on his work as a businessman.
“I am not seeking any elected position at the moment,” he told The Tico Times. “(This last vote) was sufficiently transparent and the public opinion was sincere … I am pleased that – in the end – Otto Guevara will be the candidate for the president of the Republic.”
Yet, the vote didn’t go as smoothly as some might have hoped.
At first count on Saturday, the party registered two votes more than delegation members present. They were forced to do the vote again, according to Leonid Vílchez, press secretary for the party.
When the second vote proved more distant than the first, party members recounted the number of delegates present and learned that some had not checked in at the outset of the vote. They did the vote one last time, which gave the final results; 123 for Guevara, six for Ríos and zero for López.
The party’s Web site also announced that Guevara is renouncing running simultaneously for a seat in the Legislative Assembly, explaining that this would reduce his chances of achieving the presidency. Patricia Pérez, the Libertarian Party’s Secretary General, will assume Guevara’s place in the race for the legislature.
–Chrissie Long
