San José.- The polling stations in Costa Rica for the election of the country’s president and deputies for the period 2026-2030 closed this Sunday and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) began receiving the results, which it will publish starting at 8:45 p.m. local time (2:45 GMT on Monday).
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To win in the first round, a candidate must obtain at least 40% of the valid votes. If none reach that percentage, a second round will be necessary on April 5th. A total of 3.7 million Costa Ricans were eligible to vote in the 7,154 polling stations located, for the most part, in public educational centers throughout the country, in addition to voting tables in prisons for 10,730 inmates; in nursing homes and 49 consulates in 42 countries. For these elections, 20 presidential candidates and 1,207 candidates for the 57 seats of deputies registered. During the day, the presidential candidates went to the polls accompanied by their supporters in a festive atmosphere, and called on the population to experience the country’s democratic celebration and to vote freely. Laura Fernández, a member of the right-wing Partido Pueblo Soberano, was one of the first candidates to vote, followed by others such as Ariel Robles from the left-wing Partido Frente Amplio; Claudia Dobles, a center-leftist from Coalición Agenda Ciudadana, and Álvaro Ramos, a social democrat from the Partido Liberación Nacional. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), which will give the first results at 8:45 p.m. local time (02:45 GMT on Monday) has guaranteed that the electoral process is “protected”, due to a series of controls and surveillance that are applied to the electoral material and the presence of prosecutors from the political parties at the polling stations, among others. The pre-election campaign was marked by the issue of insecurity, which in the polls is considered by the population as the main problem of the country due to the increase in homicides, which are mostly attributed to the settling of scores between drug trafficking gangs. Another campaign issue was candidate Fernández’s promise to continue the initiatives of the current government of President Rodrigo Chaves, to whom she even wants to offer a position as minister. The opposition has pointed out the policies of Chaves and Fernández as authoritarian and risky for democracy, because they consider that the ruling party intends to concentrate power.
