It started off with Costa Rica President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, casting his vote at 6:45 this morning. However, as was widely expected, when the polls closed, the race for the next President of Costa Rica appears to be undecided as it does not look like any of the 25 candidates will get the required 40% of the votes.
This will lead to a run off election between the 2 top vote getters and if a second round of voting is confirmed, it will be held on April 3rd.
The voting process went smoothly throughout the day, a hallmark and testament to the election process in Costa Rica, despite the long lines that appeared at the end of the day.
The reason for the lines at the end of the day seems to stem from the large portion of the population, about 1/3, who were still undecided on who to vote for and waited until the last minute to get out and cast their vote.
The main concern of the undecided voter were corruption and high unemployment rates and deciding which candidate could effectively deal with these issues over the next 4 years.
According to the Center for Research and Political Studies poll, the 2 parties most likley headed for the run off is the National Liberation Party and former President Figueres against the Christian Socialist Party and former Vice President Lineth Saborio.
None of this is written in stone however and we will have to wait for the official results to see who will be the next President of Costa Rica or what two candidates remain standing and will go to the run off election in April.
