Luis Solis wins presidential run-off

SAN JOSE (AP):

Opposition candidate Luis Solis easily won Sunday's presidential run-off in Costa Rica, an expected result given that his only rival had stopped campaigning a month earlier because he was so far behind in the polls.

What gave Solis, a centre-leftist, cause to celebrate was a solid voter turnout in an election considered a foregone conclusion. Experts had warned that a low turnout would undermine the legitimacy of his government. In the run-up to the vote, he had appealed to Costa Ricans to cast ballots and set a goal of getting more than one million votes.

Late Sunday, Costa Rica's Supreme Electoral Tribunal announced that with 93 per cent of voting stations reporting Solis had 1,258,715 votes, or 77.9 per cent support, easily beating ruling party candidate Johnny Araya at 22.1 per cent. Araya remained on the ballot even though he suspended his campaign because the country's constitution does not allow for a candidate to drop out.

While the 43.2 per cent abstention rate was slightly above the 39.8 per cent rate seen the last time a Costa Rican presidential election went to a second round in 2002, authorities said Solis received the highest absolute number of votes for a presidential candidate in the country's history.