IT'S Easter Sunday and polls opened at 6 AM today in Costa Rica for a vote on whom will be that nation's next president. The Conservative candidate,Christian singer and former TV journalist Fabricio Alvarado Munoz, looks to swing the current government's stance away from embracing gay rights.
An Inter-American Court of Human Rights based in San Jose, Costa Rica decided during a trial in Panama in January that marriage equality should be law. (Costa Rica: Pro Marriage Equality Court Ruling to Carry Over to a Total of 20 Nations (Jan 2018))
Not only is the ruling binding for the Central American country [of Panama], the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling also sets precedent for 19 other countries who have agreed to abide by the court’s decisions. The ruling is legally binding in Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname and Uruguay.
The current Costa Rican center-left ruling party candidate, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, supports following the above ruling.
Related Post: Costa Rica 'Accidentally' Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage? (July 2013)
Fabricio, seems to have based much of his campaign on his defiance of the court ruling, which may have helped him defeat his other 12 candidates in his party in February.
“We’re united… in defending life and family, but also to defend ethics and transparency and the battle against corruption,” the singer, who is a member of the Protestant Pentecostal movement, said on the eve of Sunday’s vote in a video appeal to Catholics, who account for more than six out 10 people in the country, seeking to forge common cause. – UK.Reuters.com
Like the US, the more modernized, coastal, and cultural areas of Costa Rica seem more moderate and liberal while the inner rural and less advanced communities are conservative.
Is marriage equality THE topic of the election? It seems that the subject has overshadowed other crucial aspects, for one, the massive budget deficits
h/t: UK.Reuters.com