One of the most heavily discussed topics in the ongoing debates among presidential candidates in Costa Rica has been corruption. At a debate organized by the National University (Spanish initials: UNA) in October the word “corruption” was mentioned 219 times among six candidates. Corruption was once again mentioned during a nationally-televised debate this past Monday, and many voters feel that candidates are latching on to this issue a bit much.

As pointed out by TV network Repretel back in October, the word “corruption” was mentioned every 90 seconds during two and a half hours. By comparison, the word “poverty” was only mentioned 147 times. Two key terms mentioned less than 60 times were “development” and “income inequality.”

At the more recent debate, two candidates actually proposed something in the way of a solution to combat corruption in government ranks: The use of Internet technology. Frontrunner Johnny Araya said that he supports expanding the Digital Government initiative so that all citizens can easily check on the work performed by government institutions. Candidate Oscar Lopez agreed with Mr. Araya and envisioned the day when people in Costa Rica can see the payroll records of all government employees by means of their mobile phones as they ride the bus on their way home from work.

On-the-street TV interviews of citizens following the Monday debate indicated that Ticos are still concerned about corruption, but they also feel that more important issues such as poverty and income inequality are being sidelined.

One political analyst interviewed by a college radio station mentioned the 2013 Index of Economic Freedom, in which Costa Rica took 49^th place, just above Mexico and below Hungary. This analyst warned that dwelling on combating government corruption too much may take away resources needed to combat poverty and income inequality:

“Thankfully, we don’t have corruption on the level of nations such as North Korea, Syria, Honduras, or even our neighbor Nicaragua. What we do have, however, is a population that is working more while earning less and heading deeper into a lower socioeconomic status while wealthy families somehow get richer. Look, if we allow this trend to continue, we will have corruption on a systematic level.”