Costa Rica votes to elect president after campaign marked by the issue of insecurity

San José.- Costa Ricans participate this Sunday in the general elections to choose their president and the 57 deputies of the Legislative Assembly for the 2026-2030 period, after a political campaign marked by the issue of insecurity related to drug trafficking, classified by the population as the main problem in the country.

The polls opened this Sunday at 6:00 local time (12:00 GMT) and will be open for 12 hours until 18:00 local time (00:00 GMT on Monday), so that the 3.7 million registered people can decide on the future rulers of this Central American country considered the most stable democracy in Latin America.

During the day, 7,154 polling stations will be open, located mostly in public educational centers throughout the country, as well as voting tables in prisons for 10,730 inmates; in nursing homes and other places.

Due to the time difference, the first polling stations to open did so on Saturday, Costa Rican time, in countries like Australia, China, India, South Korea, and the Philippines, which are part of the 42 nations where Costa Rica has enabled voting centers in 49 consulates, so that a total of 67,720 citizens can exercise their right to vote abroad.

The pre-election campaign was marked by the issue of insecurityd, which in the polls is considered by the population as the main problem of the country due to the increase in homicides, which are mostly attributed to the settling of scores between drug trafficking gangs.

20 candidates compete for the presidency of Costa Rica

The official candidate of the right-wing Sovereign People’s Party, Laura Fernández, has promised a firm hand against organized crime, the possibility of establishing a state of exception in conflict zones, reform the Judiciary and laws against crime, and finish the construction of a mega-prison inspired by the model implemented in El Salvador by the president of that country, Nayib Bukele. The opposition candidates with the most support in the polls, such as Claudia Dobles from the center-leftist Citizen Agenda Coalition, and Álvaro Ramos, from the social democrat National Liberation Party, have agreed on the need to improve laws against organized crime and special police operations, but have presented proposals with a greater focus on the social part, education, the recovery of public spaces, sports and culture.

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Many of the 19 candidates from opposition parties have labeled Fernández’s project as authoritarian, who has presented herself as the “heir” of President Rodrigo Chaves and has promised to continue his plans.

For the presidential position, there are 20 candidates, of whom 15 are men and 5 are women, while in the case of the deputies, there are 1,207 candidacies, of which 49.1% are women and 50.9% are men.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), which will give the first results at 8:45 p.m. local time (02:45 GMT on Monday) has guaranteed that the electoral process is “protected” due to a series of controls and surveillance that are applied to the electoral material and the presence of prosecutors from the political parties at the polling stations, among others.