A centre-left former cabinet minister and successful novelist has won Costa Rica’s presidential election, decisively defeating a conservative evangelical pastor and singer who shot to political prominence by campaigning against same-sex marriage.

Polls before the runoff on Sunday put the two men almost neck-and-neck, but with 95% of ballots counted Carlos Alvarado Quesada of the ruling Citizen Action party had nearly 60.8% of the vote against 39.2% for the National Restoration party’s Fabricio Alvarado Muñoz.


More than 350 million Latin American voters to elect new leaders in 2018
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“Costa Rica once again delivered a beautiful democratic message,” Alvarado Quesada, 38, told cheering supporters blowing horns and waving the country’s red, white and blue flag. “My commitment is to a government for everybody, in equality and liberty. There is much more that unites us than divides us.”


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/02/costa-rica-quesada-wins-presidency-in-vote-fought-on-gay-rights