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COSTA RICA |
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Get Ready.
Set. Go. The 2010 Presidential Elections
Officially Kicks Off Today
The 2010 presidential elections that will
end on Sunday, February 7th, officially
kicks off today.
Laura Chinchilla, candidate for the Partido
Liberación Nacional (PLN), is the front
runner. Her main competition will be
from Ottón Solís for the Partido Acción
Ciudadana (PAC); Otto Guevara of the
Movimiento Libertario (ML) and Rolando Araya
for Alianza Patriótica.
All but Chinchilla have experience in
running for president.
Ottón came within a hair of beating Oscar
Arias in 2006, his second failed bid at the
presidential chair; Otto is moving up fast,
though he like Rolando, have yet to convince
the voters for the top spot.
The 2010 presidential campaign kicks off
officially today at 10am with a formal act
by the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (TSE),
although the inscription period is until
October 23.
This year's presidential campaign will be
long remembered, not by who won the
election, but who had to drop out. We are
referring to the last minute resignation by
Rafael Angel Calderón as leader of the PUSC
party after being found guilty and sentenced
to five years prison for "peculado" on
Monday.
Political experts believe that the Otto
Guevara and the Movimiento Libertario could
greatly benefit by the leave of Calderón.
The experts also believe that the Calderón
exit may greatly hurt the PLN, a traditional
party, as people see politics as something
dirty, confirmed by the Calderón situation
and a reminded that there are still
questions to be answered by two former
president, Miguel Angel Rodriguez of the
PUSC and José María Figueres Olsen of the
PLN.
Otto and mis ML movement could pick up a lot
of discontended voters for the two
traditional parties, the PLN and the PUSC.
Some of those malcontent votes could also go
to Ottón and the PAC.
Whatever can be said, the 2010 presidential
elections, although Chinchilla is the
favourite at 55% of the decided voters, is
anyone's ball game at this time. |
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