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No Second Round This Election
With only five days before the
presidential elections, former
president and Nobel Prize
winner, Oscar Arias Sanchez, is
a definite win and no second
round election will be
necessary, as occurred in 2002
that saw Abel Pacheco take the
presidential chair. Abel Pacheco
was elected in a run-off in
April 2002 with 58% of the vote.
A latest CID/Gallup poll puts
Arias at 47% of the vote, while
PAC leaders, Ottón Solis, at
less that half of that, at 28%.
This place candidate, Otto
Guevara, of the Movmiento
Libertatio, is at 17%.
The rest of the candidates are
all below the 5% mark, including
the Partido Unidad Social
Cristiana (PUSC), Ricardo
Toledo, who was a member of
current government's cabinet
until he resigned last year to
run for president.
For Arias to take the
presidential chair, in
accordance with Costa Rica's
political constitution, he must
gain at least 40% of the vote.
The CID/Gallup poll assures
Arias a win.
In March 2004, Arias officially
announced his intention to run
for president again as the
candidate for the National
Liberation Party (PLN). The
Costa Rican Legislative Assembly
opted to bring back presidential
re-election in 2003. Arias
headed the government from 1986
to 1990.
On Jan. 27, Solís criticized
Arias for refusing to hold a
one-on-one presidential debate
in the last week of the
campaign, saying, "I want to
show the people that a group has
governed for the past 20 years
and has offered privileges to
specific sectors, forgetting
peasants and provoking the
collapse of the middle class."
Arias and the PLN was also
criticized yesterday for the
"debacle" Sunday, spending some
¢100 million colones
(us$200.000) on the "plaza
pública" that failed to turn out
the expected numbers. Antonio
Álvarez Desanti, candidate for
the Union Para el Cambio (UPC)
said that all Costa Ricans will
have to pay the ¢6.000 it cost
for each person that attended
the festivities. According to
Desanti, less than 20.000 people
participate the event that had
expected a turn out of 50.000.
Otto Guevara of the Movimiento
Libertario added that Sunday's
failure to attract the people is
a confirmation of the low
enthusiasm for the PLN.
The PLN was the only party to
have the "plaza pública" to
close it's campaign. The other
parties had said publicly that
they could not justify the
expense and would better use the
money to get their message to
the people.
The election is scheduled for
this Sunday, Feb. 5.
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