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SAN JOSE, Feb 6 (AFP): Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias, who was instrumental in ending bloody conflicts in Central America in the 1980s, won Sunday's presidential election in Costa Rica after securing 44.5 percent of the vote, an exit poll showed.
The survey conducted by the firm Borge and Associates indicated that his center-left rival Otton Solis was in second place with 37.3 percent of the ballot.
If confirmed, the sampling means that Arias, who already ruled Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990 and represents the National Liberation Party (PLN), could win the presidency without a second round of balloting.
Under Costa Rican law, a candidate gaining at least 40 percent of the vote can become president without a runoff election.
Arias, 65, made his name mediating in the many conflicts that tore apart Central America in the 1980s. But he is also a tycoon with coffee and sugar plantations and interests in a financial group. He is pressing for support for a Central American free-trade zone with the United States.
Solis was a minister under Arias who left the PLN in 2000 in protest at its turn to the right. He ran for the presidency in 2002 and strongly opposes the free-market route to prosperity.
The election was marked by s relatively lackluster turnout, with 35 percent of the country's 2.5 million voters choosing to stay home rather than go to the polls, election officials said.
The lack of enthusiasm toward the contest is believed to have stemmed from corruption scandals that have shaken Costa Rica in recent years.
Two ex-presidents, Rafael Angel Calderon and Miguel Angel Rodriguez, both of the United Social Christian Party (PUSC), were charged with taking bribes in 2004.
Calderon is suspected of taking money from a Finnish medical company and Rodriguez from French engineering firm Alcatel.
Both are currently out of prison on bail awaiting their trial but the impact on the PUSC has been devastating. The conservative party's candidate, Ricardo Toledo, had only five percent public support in opinion polls before the vote.
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