Laura Fernandez, President Rodrigo Chaves’s protege and former chief of workers, is a frontrunner and will keep away from an April 5 run-off.
Revealed On 1 Feb 2026
Polls have opened within the Costa Rica general election because the centre-right populist authorities seeks to increase its mandate and safe management of the Legislative Meeting at a time when drug-fuelled violence has gripped the nation.
Voting stations opened at 6am native time (12:00 GMT) on Sunday and can stay open till 6pm (24:00 GMT), with early tendencies doubtless inside hours.
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Laura Fernandez, President Rodrigo Chaves’s protege and former chief of workers, is main within the polls with greater than 40 p.c, sufficient to win outright and keep away from an April 5 run-off. She has pledged to proceed Chaves’s robust safety insurance policies and anti-establishment message.
Her closest rivals within the 20-candidate subject are Alvaro Ramos, a centrist economist representing Costa Rica’s oldest political get together, and Claudia Dobles, an architect representing a progressive coalition and a former first girl whose husband, Carlos Alvarado, served as president from 2018 to 2022.
Each are polling within the single digits however are seen as the 2 most definitely to compete in a doable run-off if Fernandez falls wanting 40 p.c.
Fernandez has additionally urged voters handy her 40 seats within the nation’s 57-seat Legislative Meeting, a supermajority that will permit her to pursue constitutional reforms. The present authorities holds simply eight seats and has blamed congressional gridlock for blocking its agenda.
Polls present a few quarter of the three.7 million voters stay undecided, with the biggest group being between the ages of 18 and 34 and from the coastal provinces of Guanacaste, Puntarenas and Limon.
“Persons are uninterested in guarantees from all of the governments, together with this one, although the federal government has stated issues which can be true, like needing stronger legal guidelines to revive order,” stated Yheison Ugarte, a 26-year-old deliveryman from downtown Limon, a Caribbean port metropolis that has been the toughest hit by drug violence.
Regardless of homicides surging to an all-time excessive throughout his time period and a number of corruption investigations, Chaves stays deeply in style, with a 58 p.c approval score, in line with the College of Costa Rica’s CIEP polling.
Whereas consecutive re-election isn’t allowed in Costa Rica, Fernandez has pledged to incorporate Chaves in her authorities and positioned herself because the continuity of his mandate.
