Poll: Fabricio Alvarado holds slight lead in Costa Rica

The evangelical preacher and former legislator Fabricio Alvarado has a slight advantage over former Labor Minister Carlos Alvarado in one of the latest polls, just two weeks before the second round of voting to determine Costa Rica’s next president.

According to the poll, released Friday and conducted by CID-Gallup company for Repretel TV News, 32.9 percent of voters plan to choose Fabricio Alvarado, while Carlos has 28.4 of the vote. With a margin of error of three percent, this is a statistical draw.

The poll shows that a larger percentage of voters than the total for either candidate – a whopping 38.7 percent – are undecided or don’t plan to vote.

CID-Gallup surveyed 1,137 people from March 10-15.

If only the voters who have already selected a candidate are considered, 54 percent support the evangelical contender, who represents the conservative National Restoration Party (PRN), while 46 percent supported the former minister from the governing, center-left Citizen Action Party (PAC).

The numbers differ from a poll disclosed on March 6 by the Center for Research and Political Studies (CIEP) at the University of Costa Rica, which gave Carlos Alvarado 41 percent of support and 39 percent to his rival. However, the CIEP results were also within that poll’s margin of error.

CIEP director Felipe Alpízar told AFP this week that he expected numbers to vary in the coming days and weeks given that the candidates have been actively campaigning and, in the days following his poll, formed alliances with other parties.

In the first round of voting on Feb. 4, Fabricio Alvarado received 24.9 percent of votes, followed by Carlos Alvarado with 21.63 percent.

Read more of our Elections Coverage here.