The answer to that may just be yes, as the latest Unimar poll data shows that Laura Chinchilla, the PLN (or Liberacionista) candidate is showing a strong lead over her closest competitors in the days leading to the election on February 7th, this Sunday. To be declared the winner, Chinchilla would need to muster at least 40% of Sunday’s popular vote, otherwise there will be a second round of voting. This is a constitutional requirement in Costa Rica. Right now Chinchilla stands at 42%, with Guevara at 23% and Solis at 20%. Chinchilla is the PLN candidate and has the full support of popular Presidente, Oscar Arias. Arias has been busy lately cutting the ribbons to inaugurate the many completed infrastructure projects in the waning days of his administration…showing off a little just how successful his term has been in helping Costa Rica progress towards “developed nation” status. Who do I support? Well I am not allowed, as a non-citizen, to express support for any one, but I can at least inform readers of this blog the differences between the three top candidates. Let’s start with Otton Solis, the PAC (Citizen’s Action) candidate. Solis actually started his political career in Arias’ first administration back in 1986. But the two just didn’t get along that well. Solis has always been the anti-corruption champion, as well as a supporter of agriculture, unions and the environment. His wife, Shirley Sanchez, is an important environmental lawyer. He almost defeated Arias in 2006, losing by just a few thousand votes. His major cause was heading the opposition against passage of the TLC, or trade agreement with the U.S. I believe that gives you in a nutshell enough background to understand where Solis is coming from. Guevara is the candidate of the Movement Libertario. He once was a staunch advocate of the legalization of drugs, saying that money spent fighting the battle against them was a tremendous waste of government largess. He has now changed his tune, saying that he has left such radical views behind him. Ironically and perhaps a bit inconsistent with past views is his major platform for election in 2010, which is in being the candidate who will end “delinquencia,” or the rising crime rate that has all law abiding residents alarmed. Would he be able to do so? Well crime starts in the head, heart and home, which are all areas where we don’t generally like for government to intrude. In fact, a Libertarian candidate who claims to be “tough on crime,” would seem a bit of an oxymoron, would it not? Finally we have Laura Chinchilla, who like Arias, is a centrist candidate with positions that are strikingly similar in political ideology to a Barack Obama. With her election surely the country can expect four more years of the same….but is that necessarily a bad thing? No one can deny, honestly, that Costa Rica has enjoyed tremendous infrastructure improvement in the last four years and despite a world-wide economic crisis, things didn’t get too bad here as compared with many other places in Latin American and the rest of the world. The question is, are the Costa Ricans, a Latin American population that certainly has not escaped stereotypical machismo, really ready to elect a woman? Well, we will find out in just a few days, now won’t we.
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