The Costa Rica News (TCRN) – The Supreme Court of Costa Rica Elections (TSE) today began counting by hand, one by one, the votes of the election last Sunday, in which it was decided that the candidates Luis Guillermo Solis and Johnny Araya will face a runoff in April.
The Director of Voter Registration of TSE, Hector Fernandez, told a news conference that political parties are entitled to register for the tax accounting for process ballots.
Most of the electoral material already in the court system is still lacking sacks that come from consulates where, for the first time in the history of the country, voting was made available abroad.
The Electoral Code provides that if there is less than 2% difference between the top two candidates, the ballots should be counted one by one, before the TSE make an official announcement about the results.
Interim results of the TSE, with 89% of polling stations, show that Solis, the center-left Citizen Action Party (PAC), received 30.95% support, while the candidate of the ruling National Liberation Party (PLN) Johnny Araya, scored a 29.56%.
The remaining percentage of the vote was divided among the other 11 candidates who registered for the elections.
With these results, neither exceeded the 40% needed to win on Sunday, so they will have a second round on April 6.
The TSE has a legal deadline of one month to count the votes by hand, but their representatives said they hope to finish in half the time and then begin to count the ballots for the election of deputies.
Official results of the voting for deputies should be ready, at most, by the last day of April, according to the law.
The TSE said on Monday that the electoral process was conducted with no irregularities that would question the election’s transparency were reported.
The Costa Rica News (TCRN)
San Jose Costa Rica