Wiretaps. Drug-gang payoffs. Clandestine videos. Unspeakable insults. Photoshopped campaign pictures. For Colombia's voters, going to the polls on Sunday comes as a catharsis after the ugliness that has marred one of this year's most important presidential elections in Latin America.
President-elect Luis Guillermo Solís promised to balance the budget without raising taxes, while investing in public transportation, environmental protection and increased economic opportunities for women.
Originally released in December, the Citizen Action Party candidate’s plan contains a mix of centrist and progressive policy proposals.
Easily surpassing his goal of 1 million votes Sunday night, President-elect Luis Guillermo Solís has claimed a mandate to govern, but the realities of running a government still loom, analysts said on Monday.
Barely a few minutes after Supreme Elections Tribunal President Luis Antonio Sobrado announced the first results of Sunday's presidential runoff, several business-sector representatives began emailing President-elect Luis Guillermo Solís – with copies sent to members of the press – their lists of policy recommendations and needs.
Political centrist Luis Guillermo Solís was elected president of Costa Rica in a runoff vote Sunday, becoming the first third-party candidate to win in decades.
The Tico Times published live election results in the runoff between Citizen Action Party (PAC) candidate Luis Guillermo Solís and National Liberation Party (PLN) candidate Johnny Araya as they arrived from the Supreme Elections Tribunal. The results began coming in at 8 p.m. Sunday night.
Ignacio Solís, son of Costa Rica's presumed next president, Luis Guillermo Solís, shared a snapshot of himself right after voting for his "old man" in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. And just like in the first round of elections in February, James Alvarado became the first Tico to vote after casting his ballot in Sydney, Australia.
Though his main opponent stopped campaigning in March, Citizen Action Party presidential candidate Luis Guillermo Solís still needs to capture more than 50 percent of the votes in Sunday's runoff election to become Costa Rica's next president.
By mid-afternoon, 492 people had come to the polling station to cast their vote in the runoff election. “Usually it’s more animated,” said Ruth Garcia Jaen, a volunteer for the PAC campaign. “It’s too relaxed today.”
