Costa Rica and El Salvador to face runoff

Costa Rica and El Salvador's top presidential candidates will face each other in runoff elections, after none of the contenders garnered enough votes to win in last weekend's elections.

In Costa Rica, former San José mayor Johnny Araya, of the Liberación Nacional party, and José María Villalta, of the leftist Frente Amplio, were the top contenders according to polls, but Luís Guillermo Solís, of Partido Acción Ciudadana, beat Villalta and will face Araya again in April.

Voters in El Salvador favored vice president Salvador Sánchez Ceren, who got 48.9 percent of the votes, a preliminary count showed, but still below the number needed to win in the first round, and will face his closest competitor, former San Salvador mayor Norman Quijano.

Full story (in Spanish)