Laura Fernandez ahead in Costa Rica’s presidential election

Right-wing candidate Laura Fernandez from the governing PPSO leads Costa Rica’s presidential race with 53.01 percent of the vote, needing at least 40 percent to win outright and avoid a run-off on April 5. Fernandez, the handpicked successor of President Rodrigo Chaves, campaigned on tough security policies in response to the country’s recent crime surge. With ballots from 31 percent of polling stations counted, centre-left candidate Alvaro Ramos is in second place with 30.05 percent, and former First Lady Claudia Dobles is in third with 3.9 percent. Chaves’s party is expected to make gains in the National Assembly elections, aiming for a supermajority to wield more power in choosing Supreme Court magistrates.

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