The registration period for presidential candidates from the ruling National Liberation Party (PLN) expires this month, and San José Mayor Johnny Araya is the only registered candidate from the party.
Araya is also seen as the winner of the next presidential election in 2014 by 60 percent of respondents in a poll conducted by CID-Gallup and published Thursday by local Diario Extra.
Araya reacted by saying he “still faces the challenge of winning the support of all Costa Ricans.”
Only seven percent of respondents think a candidate from a coalition of opposition parties could win, while four percent believe a candidate from the Citizen Action Party will be the next president. Three percent think there will be a new government of the Social Unity Christian Party (PUSC).
Voter abstention, however, could be very high in 2014, as 26 percent of respondents showed no preference in the candidates or declined to answer.
One PUSC candidate, Roberto Suñol, told Radio Reloj that results favored Araya because the mayor is “the only publicly known candidate, and he’s being measured against no one.”
