Spanish
San José. - The elections in Costa Rica to choose the President of the Republic and the 57 deputies of the Legislative Assembly for the period 2026-2030 are advancing this Sunday in "absolute normality" and "without incidents of relevance", indicated the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).
"We have not had any incidents of relevance during the opening and everything is proceeding with absolute normality," stated the general director of the Electoral Registry of the TSE, Gerardo Abarca, in a press conference held after more than half of the day had passed.
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The polls opened this Sunday at 6:00 local time (12:00 GMT) with 100% of the 7,154 polling stations enabled, which will be open for 12 hours, until 18:00 local time (00:00 GMT on Monday). A total of 3.7 million registered voters are called to elect the future rulers of this Central American country, considered the most stable democracy in Latin America. "We have no excuse not to go to the polls (...) We insist on that call to go to the polls, not to miss this opportunity to go out and vote. We reiterate the TSE's call for us to go vote in a civic, peaceful manner, without violence and in respect of the different people who vote the same or differently. Let's set an example of a democratic people," said the president of the TSE, Eugenia Zamora. The Court has guaranteed that the electoral process is "protected" due to a series of controls and surveillance applied to the electoral material, and the presence of the 53,251 party representatives at the polling stations, among others. "Once the vote-receiving boards close, the ceremony of resetting the results transmission system begins with the presence of those party representatives who have also been accredited. An assurance will be given of all the votes that have been cast," said Abarca. The TSE will give the first results at 20:45 local time (02:45 GMT on Monday). For these elections, 20 candidates registered for the presidency. The favorite in the polls is the official candidate of the right-wing Sovereign People's Party, Laura Fernández, who has presented herself as the "heir" of President Rodrigo Chaves and has promised a firm hand against organized crime and to promote profound reforms to the State and the Judiciary. Fernández, a 39-year-old political scientist, cast her vote this Sunday and called on citizens to join "the democratic party" and vote freely. "I am very happy, grateful to God to celebrate one more election. This is a democratic celebration where our country freely goes out to vote. It is a democratic celebration and we have to thank God for our country and for the democratic stability that I will always take care of," Fernández told the media. For his part, the candidate of the social democratic National Liberation Party, Álvaro Ramos, located in second place in the polls, asked citizens to exercise their suffrage in order, tranquility and peace. While the candidate of the opposition Citizen Agenda Coalition (center-left), Claudia Dobles, who is also vying for second place, requested to go to the polls "without fear and in freedom". According to the latest poll, released on January 28 and conducted by the Center for Research and Political Studies (CIEP) of the state-owned University of Costa Rica, the ruling party's Fernández held 44% of the voting intention while no opposition candidate exceeded 10% and the undecided accounted for 28%. In the event that no candidate obtains 40% of the valid votes this Sunday, there will be a second round on April 5th.
