Costa Ricans lived two weeks of uncertainty on not knowing the final results of the count during the presidential elections.
Anguish, mistrust, and a difference in votes which, at the beginning, some people described as a possible draw, kept on tenterhooks voters and candidates.
Dr. Oscar Arias Sanchez from Partido Liberation National (PLN) and Otton Solis from Partido Action Ciudadana (PAC) were the main characters of an electoral challenge that surprised everyone. Neither local media nor international news agencies that broadcasted the elections on February 5th dared to announce a winner after the electronic vote count. For that reason, the Supreme Elections Court itself did not announce a winner either, and immediately start¬ed manual count of each vote.
Oscar Arias
Following manual count, liberationist leader Oscar Arias Sanchez beat his closest opponent, Otton Solis from Partido Accion Ciudadana by 18,167 votes.
Although most Costa Ricans were glad to finally know the results of the count, some people, including Solis, protested against members of the Supreme Elections Court (TSE), alleging anomalies in the count and even mentioned "missing ballots."
However, judges from TSE called out for calm, and public order was kept after these unexpected numbers.
According to minutes by the Supreme Elections Court (TSE), Arias received 664,545 votes for while Solis got 646,378 out of a possible 1,623,959 valid votes.
This means that Arias had a 40.92% of electoral support while Solis had 39.80%, which implies a difference of 1.12% for Arias.
Also, on final count, results showed that 34.79% people abstained to vote.
From home
Dr. Oscar Arias Sanchez was pleased with the results as he was re-elected 20 years after his first term of office. He was visited by former candidates Otto Guevara, from Movimiento Libertario; Ricardo Toledo, from Unidad Social Cristiana; Jose Manuel Echandi, from Union Nacional, and Juan Jose Vargas, from Patric Primero.
Kevin Casas and Laura Chinchilla - Vice-presidency candidates - as well as other elected candidates, visited Arias to congratulate him on his victory.
Now what?
Following the elections of new President, what can Costa Ricans expect? In order to move further away from uncertainty, Dr. Oscar Arias presented his book and Election Manifesto during his campaign. Towards 2021: 8 priority tasks for the country, summarizes his objectives starting May 1st.
These topics are summed up to fight against corruption, poverty and inequality, integration of the country to the rest of the world with the aim of creating quality jobs, 21st Century education, and other objectives such as social safety, organizing state priorities, favoring investment for infrastructure and honoring foreign policy.
In order to achieve these goals, Arias quotes specific tasks in these eight chapters, which we present in summary.
Government 
