Laura Fernández leads ahead of Costa Rica vote as concerns grow over democratic backsliding

Laura Fernández, President Rodrigo Chaves’s handpicked successor, led the race ahead of Costa Rica’s presidential vote on Sunday, according to reporting dated Feb. 1, 2026. The contest is being framed as a choice over whether Mr. Chaves’s governing style will be reinforced or rejected.

Recent polls show Ms. Fernández hovering at or above the 40 percent threshold needed to win in the first round and avoid a runoff, according to a University of Costa Rica poll. Her closest challengers, Álvaro Ramos and Claudia Dobles, polled about 9 percent and 8.6 percent of likely voters, respectively, in the same survey.

Ms. Fernández has campaigned as a continuation of Mr. Chaves’s agenda, promising measures that include imposing states of emergency in high‑crime zones, overhauling the court system and finishing a high‑security prison known as the Center for High Containment of Organized Crime (CACCO).

She has said she would offer Mr. Chaves a post in her cabinet if elected, and the prison project is set to open in June, with an invitation extended to El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele to inaugurate it symbolically, the report says. The vote comes amid a record homicide crisis and a growing role for transnational criminal groups.

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