following a controversial overturning of the previous ban on re-election.
The latest poll prior to Sunday’s elections showed Arias’s previously commanding lead dwindling and the popularity of his main rival, Otton Solis, climbing, opening up the possibility that the contest could go to a runoff.
Arias governed from 1986-90, received the 1987 Nobel Peace Price for his efforts on behalf of resolution of civil wars in Central America and is now again running for president on the opposition social-democratic National Liberation Party (PLN) ticket.
The return of the 65-year-old Arias to public life is credited with reviving the fortunes of the PLN, after the party – founded in 1953 by a former junta leader and president, José Figueres Ferrer, – had lost the previous two presidential elections to its traditional rival, the center-right Social Christian Unity Party.
Born into a upper-class family in the central province of Heredia in 1940, Arias received degrees in law and economics from the University of Costa Rica before earning a doctorate degree in political science from England’s University of Essex in 1974. Both during his time as president and as head of the Arias Foundation he began in 1988, he has gained an international reputation for promoting peace and conflict resolution.
Arias has also been continually involved in academic pursuits alongside his brother and closest adviser, Rodrigo, who is responsible for the multiple family businesses.
Now the former president is striving yet again for his nation’s highest office, following a controversial April 2003 Constitutional Court ruling that voided a 1969 amendment prohibiting presidential re-election.
The ruling was denounced by various sectors and groups, which have said that a move to amend the constitution should have been approved by Congress and not by a group of magistrates. One leading Costa Rican political figure to criticize the ruling, former President Luis Alberto Monge, who governed from 1982 to 1986, said Arias “would be a de-facto, illegal and illegitimate president.”
Arias, however, has brushed aside the opposition to his presidential bid and focused on the goals he will seek to achieve if elected.
Among them are to “lay the groundwork” for transforming Costa Rica into a developed, industrialized nation by 2021, when the country will celebrate its bicentennial.
Arias, who has promised voters his government will build a social democracy that is “modern, flexible and open to change,” supports the opening up of the nation’s state-owned telecommunications and insurance monopolies, increased spending on education and changes to the tax code to ensure “the rich pay as the rich should.”
Arias’s critics, however, have accused him of promoting a neo-liberal – or laissez-faire – economic program, termed his ideas obsolete and blasted him for being egocentric. He was also called a coward after he refused a public debate with Solís, the candidate of the Citizens’ Action Party.
During his 1986-1990 administration, Arias was known mainly for his promotion of a peace agreement to settle military conflicts in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, as well as for his fight against domestic poverty that included the building of homes for 80,000 low-income families.
One of the most divisive issues in this year’s election is trade policy, with Arias expressing vocal support for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States – a treaty not yet formally ratified by the Costa Rican legislature – while Solís has criticized the pact. EFE