PLN To Elect
Leader on Sunday
This weekend is the big weekend for the
Partido Liberacion Nacional (PLN) as it
chooses its leader for the 2010 presidential
elections, between Laura Chinchilla, Johnny
Araya, who have been alternating leads in
the polls and way down the list, Fernando
Berrocal.
The election will be on Sunday, with the
results expected to be announced by 8:30pm
The party expected a big turnout, hundreds
of thousands, while analysts doubt that the
elections will be highly attended.
The winner in tomorrow's vote will lead the
party in the February 2010 elections taking
over from the current president, Oscar
Arias, also of the PLN party.
The leading candidates in the elections are
former vice-president, Laura Chinchilla, and
former mayor of San Jose, Johnny Araya.
The two have been leading in the polls,
depending on which poll is reporting
results, with leads of 10 points over the
other.
The third candidate, former ministro de
Seguridad, Fernando Berrocal, has been at
the bottom of any poll, getting less than
10% of support.
Berrocal said this week that if the "silent
majority" votes on Sunday there is no doubt
that he will be chosen leader, ending a
campaign that has been financed on a shoe
string budge - compared to the other two -
and with little open support by declared
voters.
For her part, Chinchilla has come out strong
the last few days of campaigning, promoting
her contribution to the current government,
a government that according to Chinchilla
has put Costa Rica back on the road to
progress. Chinchilla resigned as
vice-president last October to run for the
party nomination.
Chinchilla has said in the last couple of
days that she knows, has the experience, to
run the country, which is totally different
than running a municipality.
Chinchilla will be the first woman candidate
for the PLN party and would be the first
woman president, although she did occupy the
post temporarily while president Arias was
away from Costa Rica.
Araya has been coming on strong also,
visiting small communities around the
country and promoting his friendly access
and open attitude. His television commercial
have him close to the people.
Araya also has the support of many staunch
PLN supporters, like that of former
president Luis Alberto Monge, who is also
Araya's uncle.
Although a year ago it was believed that the
leadership of the party was a shoe in, with
Chinchilla as their candidate, today the
fight between Chinchilla and Araya is going
down to the wire.
Although Chinchilla is the pick of president
Arias, he has to be quiet on the subject
after he was reprimanded by the Elections
tribunal last year. Araya and Arias have had
their run ins in the past, the the making
peace in 2006 when Arias was elected.
Whomever is chosen leader tomorrow will face
Otton Solis of the Partido Accion Cuidadana
(PAC), who was confirmed last week during
the party's first open convention. This will
be Solis' third attempt at the presidential
seat.
The Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC),
the party that alternated power with the PLN
for decades, failed to win the opposition
role in the last presidential elections and
still is a party without a leader.
The PUSC has put all its eggs in the basket
of former president Rafael Angel Calderon
Fournier, who, among seven others, is in the
final stages of a corruption and
embezzlement charge, which he expects to be
fully vindicated and run for president in
2010.
Calderon government from 1990 to 1994.
His father was Rafael Ángel Calderón
Guardia, who was president from 1940 to
1944. |
