By Alvaro Murillo and Alexander Villegas
SAN JOSE, Jan 29 (Reuters) - A total of 20 candidates are in the running to be Costa Rica's next president, but one right-wing populist candidate has taken a commanding lead in the polls. Laura Fernandez of the ruling Sovereign People's Party is hoping to win at least 40% of the vote to avoid an April runoff.
LAURA FERNANDEZ, 39, Sovereign People's Party (PPSO)
A protégé of the current president, Fernandez has vowed to champion tough policies to combat a surge
in crime fueled by drug trafficking in the country. She has also called for changes to state pensions and reforming the judiciary and the constitution.
She has steadily risen in the polls and most show her with over 40% support, the threshold required to avoid a runoff.
A political scientist, Fernandez led the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy from 2022 to 2025 and briefly served as the president's chief of staff.
ALVARO RAMOS, 42, National Liberation Party (PLN)
Despite polling below 10%, economist Alvaro Ramos is viewed as one of the candidates who are most likely to reach a runoff.
He briefly oversaw the country's extensive network of public health clinics in 2022, but was dismissed from the job due to a feud with the president over salaries.
Ramos has promised to crack down on crime. But his political party, one of Costa Rica's most established, has struggled to regain its footing in recent elections.
CLAUDIA DOBLES, 45, Citizen Action Party (PAC)
Claudia Dobles, an architect and former researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the wife of former President Carlos Alvarado, who served from 2018 to 2022.
She oversaw urban planning and decarbonization projects during her husband's administration, but her party suffered one of its worst electoral defeats following his presidency and was nearly wiped from the political scene.
ARIEL ROBLES, 34, Broad Front (FA)
A teacher and legislator from the left-wing Broad Front party, Ariel Robles is polling at just 4%, though his party is registering high levels of support in legislative races. Still, his party has mounted the strongest opposition against the ruling party in Congress and is trying to attract the youth vote, which is the largest portion of undecided voters.
JOSE MIGUEL AGUILAR, 47, Avanza
Despite polling at just about 3%, Aguilar has garnered widespread media attention for his marriage to a cousin of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.
Aguilar has sharply criticized Costa Rica's president in televised debates, a notable development given the president's ideological alignment with Bukele, a hard-liner.
THE OTHER CANDIDATES
The other 15 candidates span the political spectrum and are polling below the margin of error. Most have joined the other opposition candidates in warning against the risk of an emerging authoritarian model championed by the election's frontrunner.
(Reporting by Alvaro Murillo and Alexander Villegas; Editing by Emily Green and Thomas Derpinghaus)
