Right-wing candidate Laura Fernández appeared on course for a landslide victory in Costa Rica’s presidential election on Sunday, according to partial results dominated by concerns over crime.
With results from 53 per cent of polling stations counted, the ruling party candidate had secured 50.87 per cent of the vote — 13 points more than required to win outright in the first round.
Fernández’s closest rival, centrist economist Álvaro Ramos, was on 31.63 per cent.
Costa Rica, long regarded as a stable democracy in Central America, has increasingly become a logistics hub for Mexican and Colombian drug cartels.
Drug trafficking has spilt into local communities, fuelling turf wars that have driven the murder rate up by 50 per cent over the past six years.
Fernández has cited the tough policies of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele—who has detained thousands of suspected gang members without charge—as a model for curbing crime.
A victory for the 39-year-old political scientist would confirm a rightward shift in Latin America, where conservative governments have recently come to power in Chile, Bolivia and Honduras.
Bukele rushed to congratulate the “president-elect”, Fernández, on Sunday, wishing her “every success”.
Attacks on the judiciary
Fernández is the protégé of popular outgoing conservative President Rodrigo Chaves, having served as his planning minister and chief of staff.
Chaves has deflected criticism over rising violence during his tenure by blaming what he describes as an overly permissive judiciary.
Jessica Salgado, 27, said she voted for Fernández as a continuity candidate, believing the government was on the right track despite the increase in violence.
“The violence exploded because they (the government) are going after the ringleaders—it’s like dragging rats out of the sewer,” Salgado told AFP.
Costa Ricans also voted on Sunday for members of the 57-seat Legislative Assembly.
Fernández hopes to secure a large parliamentary majority to amend the constitution and overhaul the judiciary.
Critics fear she may try to amend the charter to allow her mentor Chaves to return as president after her four-year term. Under the current constitution, he is barred from seeking re-election until eight years have passed since leaving office.
As he cast his vote, former president Óscar Arias, the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, warned that the “survival of democracy” was at stake.
“The first thing dictators want to do is reform the constitution to stay in power,” he said, alluding to Chávez.
Ramos, candidate of the National Liberation Party (PLN), who aimed to unite opposition to Fernández, warned that “modern dictatorships don’t always arrive with tanks ”.
Fernández insists she remains committed to Costa Rica’s democratic tradition.
Cocaine-smuggling hub
The drug trade has entrenched itself in the high-density “precarios” (informal settlements) of cities such as the capital, San José, where shootouts between rival gangs have become increasingly frequent.
Fernández has pledged to complete the construction of a maximum-security prison modelled on Bukele’s harsh CECOT penitentiary.
She has also promised tougher sentences and a Bukele-style state of emergency in the areas worst affected by crime.
Bukele is widely admired in Latin America for restoring security in El Salvador, which has been traumatised by gang violence.
