Laura Chinchilla of the ruling Partido de Liberación Nacional, traditionally a social-democratic party but one that has adopted a neo-liberal economic programme, won a decisive first round victory winning 46.8 percent of the vote in a four-way race. Her margin of victory was wider than expected. A former Vice President, she becomes the first woman to win the Presidency in this small Central American country. She assumes office on May 8th.

Ms. Chinchilla beat out Ottón Solís of the center-left Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC) who finished second with 24.4 percent and Otto Guevara of the Movimiento Libertario (ML) who finished a disappointing third with 21.4 percent of the vote. Guevara had been expected to perhaps force a second round. In Costa Rica, the winner must receive 40 percent of the vote to be elected in the first round. Guevara heads a right of center libertarian party – a rarity in Latin America. He had proposed a radical free market system, privatizing Costa Rica’s public health insurance sector and abandoning the Colón in favor of the US dollar as the national currency. For Solís, who narrowly lost four years ago, this election marks a disappoint as well. He finished 15 points below his 2006 showing. Solís had opposed the neo-liberal economic program and ran against the Central American Free Trade Agreement, a trade agreement between the US and various Central American nations.

A fourth candidate Luis Fishman, the first person of Jewish descent to run for President in a Latin American country, of the center-right Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC) finished fourth in single digits.

For Costa Rica, these elections marked the 15th consecutive since 1948 when civilians ousted the military and restore democratic rule. The turnout was approximately 70 percent in this country of 4.4 million people. Also at stake was the National Assembly and two Vice Presidential posts. Costa Rica elects two Vice Presidents, one of whom must be a woman.

With Chinchilla winning, little is expected to change in the way of policy.

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General Sarath Fonseka, the former commander of Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces who led the final assault that defeated the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) and who stood as candidate for the Presidency in this island nation’s recent elections, has been arrested for “committing military offences”.

The arrest was not wholly unexpected. Several people connected with his campaign have been detained or questioned.

The former army chief was defeated by incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa last month by six million votes to four million.

General Fonseka rejected the election results and vowed to challenge them in court.

General Fonseka led the successful assault against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE ) that ended 26 years of war last May. He was once quite close to Rajapaksa but the two fell out in the aftermath of the war.

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