Gay marriage at the center of Costa Rica's Sunday presidential election

A debate over gay marriage has upturned Costa Rica's presidential race, giving ammunition to conservative frontrunners ahead of Sunday's vote and challenging the Central American country's image as a progressive bastion. Let's make February 4 our referendum on the marriage between men and women.

His meteoric rise is unlikely to be enough for him to win without a run-off vote in April. Conservative Christian singer and TV anchor Fabricio Alvarado skyrocketed to the top of the 13-person field in opinion polls in the run-up to the vote, after denouncing a January ruling by the region’s top human rights court that called on Costa Rica to give equal civil marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples. The 43-year-old Alvarado, the lone elected lawmaker for the evangelical National Restoration Party, has called last month’s ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights a violation of Costa Rica’s sovereignty and an affront to traditional values. But Alvarado has pushed other candidates among the 13 contenders to adopt more conservative tones, including ex-government minister Antonio Alvarez Desanti, leader of the powerful National Liberation party. “It feels like you’re living in another country in terms of politics.”

A former labor minister under President Luis Guillermo Solis, British-educated Alvarado Quesada, 38, said on Sunday that he wanted to give Costa Rica the best education system in Latin America and reiterated his support for civil rights. Slideshow (18 Images)

Solis, a former diplomat and history professor, won in a landslide four years ago but has seen his popularity fall as an investigation into an influence peddling scandal has unfolded. Political analyst Francisco Barahona told The Associated Press that it came as an “external shock” for Costa Rica, a majority Roman Catholic nation with an increasing evangelical population.
Costa Ricans head to the polls to elect a new President, amidst a gay rights controversy.