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COSTA RICA: Last-Ditch
Leftwing Alliance to 'Save' the Country
By Daniel Zueras
SAN JOSE (IPS) Political forces on the left in Costa
Rica have formed a partial last-minute alliance to
support Ottón Solís, the presidential candidate for the
centre-left Citizens' Action Party (PAC), in a bid to
counter the conservative lead that the polls predict for
the upcoming Feb. 7 elections.
The governing National Liberation Party (PLN) has a lead
over the opposition Libertarian Movement (ML) that has
narrowed to 10 percentage points, but pollsters say it
is unlikely that any candidate will take 40 percent or
more of the vote, the minimum required to win outright
without a run-off election.
The goal of the last-minute leftwing alliance is either
to boost Solís into second place in the presidential
race, or for him to amass enough supporters to be able
to tip the scales if there is a second round between the
frontrunners, which would take place Apr. 4, and so
exert pressure to neutralise key aspects of the
conservative agenda.
PLN candidate Laura Chinchilla has the support of 41
percent of respondants in the latest polls, but ML
presidential hopeful Otto Guevara has increased his
share to 30 percent. Only 14 percent of respondents say
they intend to vote for Solís.
Chinchilla resigned from her position as vice president
in the government of President Óscar Arias 13 months ago
to launch her candidacy. In September 2009 she had the
backing of 63 percent of voters, but her steep slide in
the polls - although less marked in the latest survey -
leads analysts to predict a run-off election, which has
only happened once before in Costa Rica, in 2002.
Formally, the governing PLN is a social democratic
party, but it has veered to the centre-right, according
to political analysts and dissident PLN sectors, while
the ML and its candidate Guevara are openly on the far
right of the political spectrum. They propose to limit
the role of the state to a minimum and unleash market
forces to their fullest extent.
Guevara's support in the polls, in what is his third
presidential bid, has leaped considerably compared to
his electoral results in 2006, when he received 8.5
percent of the vote. This has deepened alarm among
progressive sectors over the swing to the right seen in
the polls.
Solís, also a third time presidential hopeful, came
within a whisker of obtaining 40 percent of the vote in
2006, losing to Arias by just over one percent in
elections which returned Arias to power after a previous
term as president (1986-1990). Solís turned his party,
the PAC, into the main opposition force, with 17 out of
57 lawmakers in parliament.
Because of this, the centre-left Patriotic Alliance (AP)
and National Integration Party (PIN) decided to back
Solís' candidacy, although at this late stage their own
candidates remain formally in the ring and any votes
cast for them cannot be transferred to Solís, as the
deadline for withdrawing from the contest is past.
The leftwing alliance is effective for the presidential
race only, as the two minority centre-left parties are
contesting the parliamentary elections, also to be held
Feb. 7, independently.
The 10-point common programme drawn up by the alliance
includes renegotiation of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
with the United States, which is part of the Dominican
Republic and Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA)
with that country.
The common agenda also aims at improving citizen
participation, the defence of the environment, and
reforming the electoral law.
A factor that detracts from the alliance is the absence
of the second largest progressive force in Costa Rica,
the Broad Front (FA), which continues to support its
presidential candidate Eugenio Trejos and its own
independent programme.
The entry into force in 2009 of the FTA "made unity
necessary, in order to confront the right," Walter Muñoz,
nominally the PIN's presidential candidate, told IPS.
Muñoz regards the electoral campaign as "fraudulent",
referring to the polls as well as party financing, some
of which is of dubious origin.
"The only way to counter them (the PLN and ML) was to
provide a different option," and that is where this
"strategic alliance" comes in, he said.
In Muñoz's view, the strengthened electoral option Solís
now represents will be able to attract support from the
social movements that actively opposed the FTA until it
was finally approved.
As for Solís, he told IPS in a telephone interview that
he was very satisfied with the coalition, which "will
have great impact," and was confident of victory "in the
first round."
The moderate leftwing candidate was dismissive of the
polls, which in Costa Rica tend not to reflect what
happens later at the ballot box, he said.
Solís recalled that four years ago, when he ran against
President Arias, the polls predicted a difference
between them of 20 to 25 percent of the vote, but on
election day there was only a difference of one percent,
equivalent to 18,000 votes.
The candidate emphasised that PAC voters, and those on
the left in general, reflect carefully before voting,
and he again criticised the management of polls in this
country of 4.5 million people, of whom 2.8 million are
eligible to vote.
Muñoz admitted that the alliance was a late move, but
said it was imperative to react against the campign's
swing to the right, with all that is at stake now for
the political and social sectors aligned with the left
and centre-left.
He said it was "a proposal to save Costa Rica. We are
still in time, because 60 percent of the electorate is
undecided."
Solís said the times the country is living in demand
unity, and took a leaf out of the history books to ask
himself why the countries who fought against Adolf
Hitler's Germany in the Second World War (1939-1945) did
not act to stop him earlier. "That's the way history
works," he said.
Asked about why the FA did not join the alliance, its
leader José Merino told IPS he refused to do so because
it involved "only the support of candidates who
withdrew," and recalled that two years ago Solís
"explicitly" rejected the idea of participating in a
progressive coalition. Even a few weeks ago Solís was
not in favour of electoral coalitions, he said.
The FA party leader said that while he respected the
initiative, he felt it was "rather irresponsible" at
this stage of the campaign to ask a party to dissolve
itself in order to support another candidacy. Merino
hopes for a growth in support for the FA in the
elections, as a basis for consolidating "a real option
on the left" that in future might stand a chance of
winning the presidency.
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