Photo by Element5 Digital

8th April 2022

Last Sunday, 3 April, Costa Ricans took to the polls to elect their new President. The candidates, who came out on top in the first round of voting in February, were José María Figueres, the former President of Costa Rica (1994-1998) and Director of the World Economic Forum (2000-2004) of the centre-left PLN party, and Rodrigo Chaves, the former Minister of Finance (2019-2020) of the centrist PPSD party who resigned following frequent clashes with President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, the incumbent of the centre-left PAC party. Chaves emerged victorious, defeating Figueres by less than 6%, garnering 52.9% of the vote to Figueres’ 47.1%. Upon the results being announced, Chaves reiterated his pledge to “rework” the country’s nearly $2bn agreement with the IMF, declaring that the current deal was “not ambitious enough.” However, Chaves’ ability to achieve this and other campaign promises will be limited by the fact that his party only won 10 of the 57 seats in the Costa Rican Congress. 

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