Arias All Set For Win Tomorrow
Óscar Arias Sánchez heads to this Sunday’s presidential election in Costa Rica as the favourite, according to a poll by CID-Gallup that says that  47% of voters will vote for Arias, four points higher that other polls released this week.

In March 2004, Arias officially announced his intention to run for president again as the candidate for the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN). The Costa Rican Legislative Assembly opted to bring back presidential re-election in 2003. Arias headed the government from 1986 to 1990.

Ottón Solís of the Partido Acción Cuidadan (PAC) is second with 28%, followed by Otto Guevara of the Movimiento Libertario (ML) with 13%, Ricardo Toledo of the governing Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC) with 5% and Antonio Álvarez Desanti of the Unión para el Cambio (UPC) with3%.

Though the different polls show different results, they all however, have Arias on top and with a healthy margin.

Some say that if Arias does not win the first round, that is he does not get the required 40% of the popular vote needed to be declared a winner, the tide will turn against him in the second round and may see history being made with the PAC or ML electing a president, a move from the traditional two parties - PLN and PUSC - alternating power.

Polling Data

What candidate would you vote for in the next presidential election?

Source: CID-Gallup
Methodology: Interviews with 2,143 Costa Rican adults, conducted on Jan. 28 and Jan. 29, 2006. Margin of error is 2 per cent.