costa rica 2014 elections

Opposition candidate Luis Guillermo Solís easily won Sunday’s runoff election, ushering in Costa Rica’s first third-party candidate in 44 years.

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.

HEREDIA CENTRO – Kids of all ages joined the electoral party this Sunday to cast their symbolic votes for president in national children’s elections.

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.”

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla cast her vote in Sunday's presidential runoff at 10:45 a.m. at the Joaquín García Monge elementary school in Desamparados, a canton south of the capital.

The Tico Times spoke with voters this week, asking them what they thought about the candidates and whether they planned to vote Sunday.

The people must vote, and a mandate must be given. Democracy is funny that way.

Costa Rica’s second-ever presidential runoff campaign came to an end Sunday evening but only one party was celebrating.