Local Costa Rican expatriates cast votes in their country’s elections

Local Costa Rican expatriates traveled to Newark to cast votes in their country’s presidential elections.

A crowded field of 13 presidential hopefuls contend for their country’s top post, although polls show that none come close to the 40 percent minimum required to win this hotly contested race in the first round.

Trenton resident Doña Carmen Castro boarded a train from Trenton Transit Center before 9 a.m. for a whirlwind round-trip voting journey to Newark where officials provided a special polling site at the Best Western Hotel.

Castro expected to cast her vote for Juan Diego Castro, presidential candidate of the National Integration Party (PIN). The pair share no relation.

Doña Carmen said “Juan Diego Castro is willing to take on all the corrupt politicians. It will be difficult for any candidate to claim victory this first time.”

Doña Carmen spoke with translation support from Laura Mora, formed president of the Trenton Costa Rican Association.

Castro references as a President Donald Trump wannabe who threatens to dismantle an alleged corrupt government.

Numerous candidates have tethered campaigns that push back against the country’s growing LGBTQ community.

Conservative Christian singer and TV personality Fabricio Alvarado moved atop the crowded presidential roster with an anti-gay rights platform.

Conservatives fumed about the region’s top human rights court which moved Costa Rica to give equal civil marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples.

Current Costa Rican President Guillermo Solis exits following a nonproductive term which mirrored a similar performance by his predecessor, Laura Chinchilla Miranda, her country’s first female president.

Costa Rica election rules prevent Solis from seeking an immediate second term. The Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) first-allowed expatriates voting privileges in 2014.

“It’s an honor, a privilege and right to have a say in our country’s government. I live in Trenton but many members of my family still live in Costa Rica,” Doña Carmen said.

The Costa Rican Embassy in Washington, D.C. noted a total of 31,864 Costa Ricans living abroad have the possibility of voting in this election process with a majority of these voters, approximately 20,000, residing in the U.S.

If no candidate secures 40 percent of the vote, a run-off election with the top two finishers is set for early April.