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Scandal-weary Costa Rica electing new president

Posted on: Sunday, 5 February 2006, 17:48 CST

By John McPhaul

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Fed up with scandal, Costa Rica voted for a new leader on Sunday with Nobel laureate and former president Oscar Arias favored to return to power in the Central American nation.

Arias, 65, a free-market moderate, has held a commanding lead in polls for months, unscathed by the kickback scandals that have rocked a nation that prides itself on being a cut above the rest of the region.

Costa Rica, which abolished its army almost 60 years ago, was stable in the 1980s when its neighbors were ravaged by civil war.

But the coffee- and banana-growing country, also famous for its ecotourism resorts and rain forests, has been knocked sideways by bribery scandals. Two former presidents were jailed briefly in 2004.

Voting stations opened at dawn, but lines were thin all day as many Costa Ricans, wary of politics after the improprieties, were expected to shun the election altogether.

Activists from the main parties drove cars and jeeps around the streets of San Jose honking horns and flying flags out of windows trying to drum up support.

"People are very disillusioned because in recent elections we have not been able to elect a good president and because two former presidents were corrupt," said Lourdes Moras, 34, a graphic designer voting in the capital city.

Ex-presidents Rafael Angel Calderon and Miguel Angel Rodriguez were both put behind bars for taking kickbacks from foreign companies. A third former leader is refusing to return from Europe to face grilling on similar allegations.

LOOKING FOR DIGNITY

Arias became a national icon after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for producing a peace plan that helped end civil wars elsewhere in Central America. Voters are looking to him to help restore their dignity, analysts said.

"He has the experience that the other candidates lack, " said Vicente Martin, 43, a public works employee.

In a telephone interview with Mexican radio before the polls closed, Arias sounded confident and took the opportunity to criticize the United States for neglecting Central America since the end of its civil wars during the Cold War era, when Washington sent military aid to stop leftist rebel insurgencies.

"Instead of rewarding us for putting down arms, they punished us," said Arias said.

Former planning minister Otton Solis, 51, an anti-corruption centrist who leads the Citizen Action Party, is the main rival to Arias, scion of a coffee-farming family.

An economist, Solis wants to rewrite parts of the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States before it is ratified by Costa Rica's Congress.

Arias supports the accord.

"We cannot go backward and elect a past president," said Marcela Zuniga, 62, a hairdresser. "We must go forward and redesign politics in this beautiful but sick country."

Polls had Arias taking more than the 40 percent of votes needed for a first-round win to avoid an April 2 run-off between the top two candidates. A poll last week gave him 42.6 percent.

Leftists have won a string of recent elections in Latin America but the left in Costa Rica is split into several factions with virtually no chance of grabbing power.

Costa Rica's long-standing two-party system has been shaken by the scandals and the Social Christian Unity Party of President Abel Pacheco has little support now.

(Additional reporting by Chris Aspin and Lorraine Orlandi)

Source: REUTERS

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