While the eyes of the world were focused on Costa Ricans in the country, a group of Costa Ricans spread across the world were also going to the polls to vote for a new president.
In places like Oslo, Norway, were the temperature was some 30 celsius lower than in Costa Rica and with a light snow on the ground, Costa Ricans like Beatriz Quesada, travelled from Uppsala, Sweden, to vote.
Thouands of Costa Rican, spread across the globe, for the first time were able to vote – in real time.
In the United States, Silvia Cordero, told La Nacion she travelled from Detroit to Chicago, hours in an automobile, to vote. Living some 11 years in the US, Silvia says this is the first time she was able to vote since 1998. “I almost cried from the emotion,” said Silvia.
Expat Costa Ricans were able to vote in places like France, China, Mexico, Spain and India, among others.
In the majority of the cases, the voting took place at selected Costa Rican embassies. For the most part, Costa Ricans were well informed of the time and place to vote. In Spain, however, confusion reigned as the voting did not take place in the Costa Rican embassy in that country, as indicated on the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (TSE) website, but rather in the offices of the Secretary General of the Iberoamericana in Madrid. A total of 398 Costa Ricans from all over Spain and Portugal were registered to vote there.
According to the TSE, the voting centre with the most registered voters, was New York with 2.657 of the 12.634 Costa Ricans across the world.
