Conservative Set to Govern Costa Rica

Voters who blamed the president for ruining the economy chose a conservative economist from the main opposition party Sunday as their next president.

“It’s a big responsibility,” Miguel Angel Rodriguez said after early results indicated he had won the presidency. “We have to take Costa Rica onto the bridge toward progress.”

According to early results, Rodriguez of the Social Christian Unity Party had 47.9% of the vote, compared with 45.8% for Jose Miguel Corrales of the National Liberation Party.

Election officials did not say how many of the ballots had been counted or what percentage of the country’s 2 million registered voters cast ballots.

Corrales conceded defeat in a speech and congratulated Rodriguez.

This was the third time that Rodriguez, 48, a wealthy businessman and economist, had run for president. He lost to the current president, Jose Maria Figueres, by only 20,000 votes in 1994.

Rodriguez, who takes office May 8 for a four-year term, stands for more market-oriented policies and has vowed to privatize state firms in order to cut the country’s crippling, $4-billion debt.