SAN JOSE: Voting was under way in Costa Rica yesterday, where historian and former diplomat Luis Guillermo Solis faced no opposition in the country’s presidential run-off election.
His lone rival in the race, Johnny Araya, dropped out last month after polls showed he would be soundly defeated, giving Solis a glide path towards victory in the election to lead this country of some five million people.
Polls throughout the country opened at 1200 GMT.
Araya was the candidate of the ruling National Liberation Party (PLN), which has fallen into disfavor because of alleged corruption and economic crisis under outgoing President Laura Chinchilla. The recent scandals have weakened not just Chinchilla and the PLN, but also the two-party system in Costa Rica, Latin America’s oldest democracy.
Power in this Central American country has traditionally been traded between the social democratic PLN and the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC).
With his path wide open, Solis is set to become the first third-party candidate to win the Costa Rican presidency in 50 years.
AFP
