Disillusionment by young voters in Costa Rica may shift the political tide in the coming presidential and legislative elections. The voter demographic from 18 to 29 years old has the power to sway who will be elected to lead Costa Rica at the Executive Branch level. Young voters can also decide the majority rule at the national Legislative Assembly; as election day gets closer, what are their concerns?

According to polls conducted by Semanario Universidad, a weekly news magazine that covers topics of interest to the university student population in Costa Rica, young voters are extremely doubtful of the status quo represented by the National Liberation and Social Christian Unity political parties (Spanish initials: PLN and PUSC, respectively). In recent years, young voters suffered from apathy; they were dismayed by two former Presidents of Costa Rica being convicted of corruption and bribery and even sentenced to prison, although they did not actually end up in the slammer.

Apathy among young voters in Costa Rica has turned into a rallying cry that candidates are trying to capitalize on. Young voters feel very disenfranchised, especially in regions such as Guanacaste where luxury tourism resorts and lavish real estate developments are going up despite massive unemployment. This disillusionment has resulted in viral videos such as “Our Name is Costa Rica,” which explains that young people are clearly tired of the PLN/PUSC two-party system that has emerged in the country over the last few decades.

Political analysts are closely following the opinions of young voters as the electoral campaign unfolds. A few months ago, the Costa Rica Star reported on the potential shoo-in victory of presidential candidate Johnny Araya, the PLN front-runner, Beatles fan and former Mayor of the lovable city of San Jose. Young voters are changing that situation, and now Mr. Araya has to step up his campaign against Jose Maria Villalta, also known as the Facebook candidate of Costa Rica.

Mr. Villalta is definitely more appealing to young voters than Mr. Araya, but mostly from a cult of personality angle. His Frente Amplio (Broad Front) political party has been accused of not being “leftist enough.” This does not mean that young voters in Costa Rica are clamoring for a communist rule, but they do not want to see insincerity or uncertain ideologies. The elections are still up for grabs, but things are certainly looking grim for PUSC, which has been compared to the Grand Ole Party (GOP) in the United States in terms of cohesiveness, or at least lack thereof.