Rodrigo Chaves is the President Elect after the second ballot in the Costa Rica Elections.
The Costa Rica General Elections held on Sunday the 6th of February 2022 did not produce a clear winner out of the 25 or so candidates on the ballot sheet. Not surprisingly, none of the candidates received at least 40 percent of the votes in the first ballot (required to win outright).
As per the rules, a second ballot or “runoff” was held yesterday, Sunday April 3rd 2022, between the two candidates with the most votes from February; former President José María Figueres – National Liberation Party (27% of the first vote) and Rodrigo Chaves Robles – Party for Social Democratic Progress (17% of the first vote).
The “winner takes all” runoff produced a come from behind victory for Rodrigo Chaves, a right-wing economist and former finance minister, with 53% of the vote to Jose Maria Figueres’ 47% of the vote. Chaves who assume power on May 8th, 2022.
Voter Apathy
In the general elections in February, the Supreme Election Tribunal of Costa Rica (Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones or TSE by its acronym in Spanish), Costa Rica’s Election Authority reported that 40% of eligible voters stayed at home on Election Day, the highest level of voter abstinence in 60 years.
Despite hoping for a much better turn out once the field had cleared, the second ballot did not excite those that stayed home the first time and as a result the tribunal reported more than 42 percent of the 3.5 million eligible voters did not participate.
With only 58% voting in the second ballot and Chaves getting 53% of those, he will go into his presidential term with the backing of a little over one million eligible voters. The population of Costa Rica is about 5 million.
Challenges Ahead
Costa Rica is not without its problems. Election issues included; corruption, the higher cost of living, reviving the post Covid-19 economy, the issue of a reported 25% of Costa Ricans living in poverty, the ever widening income disparity as well as rising unemployment which is now at 15%. In addition, the public debt which is running at 70 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) was also a huge concern.
