Mon, February 08, 2010
As lively celebrations died down for Costa Rica's first female president-elect, Laura Chinchilla faced the new challenge of making deals with her opponents in Congress.
Chinchilla, a social democrat who opposes abortion but wants more help for the poor, won 47 percent of the votes counted late Sunday, way ahead of her rivals and above the 40 percent needed to avoid a run-off.
However, deputies from her ruling National Liberation Party (PLN) won barely 38 percent, as voting here increasingly favors political minorities.
The opposition had criticized Chinchilla as being a puppet of current President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oscar Arias.
Like Arias, she will also have to seek alliances within Congress, according to the nearly complete results of Sunday's simultaneous parliamentary polls.
"It's a crushing victory which, however, reinforces a growing tendency (in Costa Rica)... to pass from a bipartisan regime to a multi-party regime," Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences director, Jorge Mora, told AFP.
The ruling PLN lost two seats, with 23 out of 57 in the chamber, where a single majority is set at 29.
The biggest loser was the main opposition grouping, the center-left Citizen's Action Party, which lost six of its 17 seats, and whose presidential candidate Otton Solis lagged more than 20 points behind Chinchilla.
Chinchilla's other main opponent, Otto Guevara, only reached third place but his pro-business Libertarian Movement Party was set to increase its seats from six to 10.
The center-left Access Without Exclusion, which fights for disabled people, went from one to four seats, and the Social Christian Unity Party maintained six deputies, despite a recent corruption scandal.
"Dialogue has to become a permanent instrument for the exercise of power," 50-year-old Chinchilla admitted in comments to Canal 7 television after her victory.
Chinchilla was expected to continue Arias' policies of promoting free trade and international business ties, while her more conciliatory tone had raised hopes among many voters, analysts said.
Her past experience as public security minister and justice minister was thought to have provided reassurance amid growing insecurity in a nation long proud of its stability, but that is also situated on major regional drug routes.
In her first post-election speech, Chinchilla promised to tackle insecurity and drug-trafficking, but she also underlined the importance of acting "intelligently" against crime caused by social inequalities.
Socially conservative on issues such as abortion and gay marriage, Chinchilla said she would increase grants for poor students, expand pensions for the poor and open daycare centers to support working mothers.
But she will need to make deals to push her plans through a parliament in which a single deputy can block a project approved by the majority.
Pressure is also expected from unions unhappy with a free trade deal with the United States -- and another due shortly with China -- to environmentalists opposed to her commitment to open-pit mining in a country famed for its lush vegetation and eco-tourism.
(Agencies)
