Ex-president Jose Maria Figueres will not run for presidency

November 1^st, 2012 (InsideCostaRica.com) – Jose Maria Figueres has decided not to become a candidate for Costa Rica’s 2014 presidential elections.

“I have decided to focus my energy and experience in working on building a multi-party project for the future of the country, called La Via Costarricense,” he said.

“It was only 10 months ago that I returned to the country, full of optimism, with the purpose of contributing so that things will (improve),” he added.

“I believe that a way to do this is to work together, trusting in the intelligence of the Costa Rican population, in order to design a national, 20 year project. It is our duty as a country to agree on national goals within a plan that will give light to the short-term decisions, in order to take the best direction.”

According to Figueres, he “does not want to become president,” as he “only wants to change Costa Rica.”

According to reports, Figueres made the decision of not running in the elections after he saw the results of a poll that gave a large advantage to Johnny Araya, current mayor of San Jose. Araya and Figueres had agreed, according to a confidential source, that whoever had the lead in the polls on that date, would go on to be the candidate.

Jose Maria Figueres was president of Costa Rica from 1994-1998.

In the opinion poll, carried out by Unilever, 1 out of 3 respondents said they would never vote for Figueres.