In the presidential elections that took place this past February 4 in Costa Rica, none of the candidates reached the 40% threashold of votes required to win the elections, as a matter of fact it was abstentionism (those who didn’t vote) that reached the highest percentage with 34.34% according to the last information provided by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.

The number of people who can vote but choose not to do so has been on the rise since 1995, the apathy of Costa Ricans towards taking an active part in their democracy is worrisome and has led the country to organize a second round of elections in the past two elections, a process which has a cost of approximately U.S. $2.8 million.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) launched a campaign promoting the participation of voters in the second round, “This April 1st, care, vote and love your country”; in the second round the President can be decided by the difference of one single vote.

However, it seems that indifference (not enough care to vote) will continue to take the lead in the second round, where a total of more than 3.3 million people have the right and responsibility to cast their vote; it is expected that a large number of people won’t participate, especially considering that the second round will take place April 1st, Easter Sunday, a day when many Costa Ricans are still enjoying their vacation or taking part of religious celebrations.

The two candidates left, Carlos Alvarado and Fabricio Alvarado only added a total of 1,005,009 votes in the first round.

Unfortunately, the presidential campaign as Costa Rica heads towards the second round has centered around the same topics as the one prior to the first electoral campaign, leaving many important topics aside, among them, security, the country closed 2017 with over 600 homicides (a historical number); public finances, being that Costa Rica currently has a fiscal deficit of 6.2% of the GNP,corruption, poverty, since despite having decreased during this government is still a topic of concern.