Presidential candidate Jose Maria Figueres of the National Liberation Party (PLN)
SAN JOSE, Feb 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — Former Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres leads in the current presidential elections, while a runoff is looming as no clear winner emerged, according to the latest data from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) on Monday.
With 79.96 percent of the ballot counted, Figueres of the National Liberation Party, who was the country’s president from 1994 to 1998, led the result with 27.29 percent of the valid votes cast, followed by former official of the World Bank and former Finance Minister Rodrigo Chaves of the Social Democratic Progress Party with 16.66 percent of the vote.
Fabricio Alvarado of the New Republic party placed the third with 14.93 percent of the vote, and the gap between Chaves and Alvarado has been widening, according to the TSE.
If none of the candidates exceeded the threshold of 40 percent of the vote to win the country’s presidency in the first round, a second round vote should be held on April 3.
The winner of the runoff will assume the presidency in Costa Rica on May 8, replacing the current president, Carlos Alvarado. — NNN-XINHUA
