Laura Chinchilla Chosen As First Woman Presidential Candidate

Jun

2009

San Jose, Costa Rica – Laura Chinchilla Miranda last night was chosen at the leader of the Partido Liberacion Nacional (PLN) party and the first woman to lead the party and first woman presidential candidate in the history of Costa Rica.

With a margin of more than 11%, Chinchilla beat out San Jose mayor, Johnny Araya, in what has been described as an "intense, but clean" campaign that was fought right up to the end. The latest polls had placed Chinchilla ahead of Araya by 10%.

Fernando Berrocal, former ministro de Seguridad, was first to accept his defeat, throwing his support behind the Chinchilla. Berrocal, who had expected the "silent majority" to elevate him to leader of the party got only a 3% support.

The strongest support for Laura came from Cartago and Limon, where more than 60% of the voters voted for Chinchilla.

The only province negative for Chinchilla was Alajuela, where more than 50% of the vote went to Araya. Araya, however, failed to win support of "his city" of more than 15 years.

The win now pits Chinchilla against the Partido Accion Cuidadana (PAC) leader, Otton Solis, who last weekend got the nod, for the third time in a row, to run for president in 2010.

More than 400.000 people took part in the PLN party voting, the largest showing for a political convention and to what some supporters are calling, a true political party for all Costa Ricans.

Fifty year old Laura, born in Desamparados, south side of San José, was accompanied on the victory stage by her husband, Jose Maria Rico, their son and Lauras mother and father, who was also the Contralor General de la Republica (Comptroller General) on two occasions in 1972 and in 1987.

Laura is also Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias, pick to follow his presidency in 2010. Arias had been quiet, publicly, of his support for Laura after been scolded by the Elections Tribunal that it was unfit for a sitting president to make comments of support for a political candidate.