As the fair grounds in Zapote close, the country begins to focus its attention just down the road on the President’s House.  Although their are 14 contenders, the race to see who will be the new occupant is realistically only a 3 way race at this point according to the most recent polls.  Oscar Arias leads with over 45% of those polled planning to vote for him.  Ottón Solis (21%) and Otto Guevara (15%) are the closest and have closed the gap slightly since August, although their gains have come at the expense of the small party candidates rather than Arias.

Although many candidates won’t admit it, the main question is whether Arias will win in the first round, by getting more than 40% of the vote.  If no candidate gets 40%, then a runoff must occur between the first and second place finishers.  The first runoff in history occured in the last election between Pacheco and Araya.

All of the candidates will intensify their campaigning beginning this week.  The traditional "plazas" will begin too, where candidates throw a street party in different towns and the candidate speaks from the town square.  This election there are some twists to the tradion.  Otto Guevara is not doing any "plazas",  but is instead donating the budget for them to public works projects, like painting or repairing needy local schools. Antonio Alvarez Desanti is calling his Festivals for Change and will include artistic presentations, sporting events and cultural activities during the day. 

Election Numbers -
 6,163 polling places nationwide.
2,550,613 voters
1 President
2 Vice-presidents
57 Legislators
1,002 City Council Representatives