Costa Rica Heads to Polls with Security Shaping Campaign

(MENAFN) Costa Rica's electorate heads to polling stations Sunday to select a new president and lower house legislators in a general election heavily favoring continuity of the current right-wing government and its conservative platform.

Despite dozens of parties vying for control, surveys indicate an overwhelming victory for the Sovereign People's Party (Partido Pueblo Soberano), signaling the perpetuation of President Rodrigo Chaves Robles' conservative administration and enabling sweeping reforms.

Voters will fill 60 positions total: the presidency, two vice presidencies, and 57 Legislative Assembly seats—all carrying four-year terms.

Polling stations open at 6 a.m. local time, with approximately 3.7 million eligible voters expected to participate over the next 12 hours, following four years under Chaves Robles' leadership amid escalating public anxiety over violence and organized crime penetration.

Campaign activities officially concluded January 30. Among 20 presidential candidates, three emerge as principal contenders with genuine prospects of competing in the first and potential second voting rounds.

Dominating surveys is the current president's protégé, Laura Fernandez Delgado, from the governing Sovereign People's Party. Polling such as the latest from the Center for Political Research and Studies (CIEP) positions her support at 44%—exceeding the constitutional 40% threshold needed for an outright first-round triumph.

Fernandez Delgado positions herself as steadfast continuation of Chaves Robles' outgoing administration, anchoring her campaign on pledges of economic expansion and strengthened security.

Closely mirroring Chaves Robles' political trajectory, Fernandez Delgado vows to sustain governance concentrated on economic growth through investment and deploying a security framework tightly aligned with the United States.

Costa Rica has already secured agreements with Washington in this domain and, following U.S. direction alongside regional partners, has classified major drug-trafficking criminal enterprises as international terror organizations.

Throughout the Chaves Robles administration, Costa Rica achieved average economic growth approaching 5%, unemployment reduction to 6.9%, and substantial fiscal consolidation.

Trailing Fernandez Delgado is Alvaro Roberto Ramos Chaves, an economist holding a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, representing the traditional National Liberation Party (Partido Liberacion Nacional, PLN). According to the CIEP poll, Ramos Chaves commands 9.2% support. The PLN ranks among the nation's largest political forces and embodies Costa Rica's social democratic foundation.

Positioned on the moderate left, Ramos Chaves seeks to bolster the middle class and assist families. His public insecurity approach critiques the escalation of state violence under Chaves Robles and Fernandez Delgado, stressing the imperative to address crime's root causes through education investment.

Claiming third position with 8.6% support in the final CIEP survey is Claudia Dobles Camargo of the Citizen Agenda Coalition (Coalición Agenda Ciudadana, CAC), who presents herself as a centrist profile amid an increasingly polarized contest. An architect and urban planner, Dobles Camargo possesses extensive experience in modernization and infrastructure initiatives, including Costa Rica's public transportation network.

Her platform centers on environmental justice, women's support, and human rights protection.

The 2026 elections unfold amid surging violence in what has historically been the region's safest nation and an international tourism destination.

Recent years have witnessed Costa Rica experiencing the emergence of domestic criminal organizations gaining increasing control in the hemispheric narcotics marketplace.

The ascent of groups such as the Southern Caribbean Cartel—the country's first internationally operating criminal organization—has accompanied a dramatic violence spike. By 2025, Costa Rica had registered 873 homicides, three fewer than in 2024.

According to the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ), 2026 commenced violently, with 51 homicides connected to drug-trafficking score-settling documented in the year's opening weeks.

Chaves Robles has charted a conservative trajectory for his administration, inviting comparisons to governments such as Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's, whose public security framework relies on robust presidential authority, extended emergency states, and individual guarantee suspensions.

The current security policy—which would persist under a Fernández Delgado administration—is substantially anchored in U.S. guidelines and President Donald Trump's administration, from which Costa Rica has obtained $19.5 million in security assistance.

During his term's final months, the Chaves Robles administration has rechanneled funds toward constructing a High-Security Center for Organized Crime (CACCO)—a mega-prison accommodating 5,000 criminal leaders—alongside military force deployment nationwide targeting the emerging criminal regime.

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