SAN JOSE, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Costa Ricans head to the polls on Sunday to cast their votes for a record number of candidates in a presidential election unlikely to produce an outright winner in the first round.

Not one of the 25 presidential candidates is expected to win more than 40% of votes, the threshold needed to avoid a run-off, according to a poll published on Tuesday by the Center for Research and Political Studies of the University of Costa Rica. The election is likely to lead to a second-round vote in early April.Report ad

The race to replace center-left President Carlos Alvarado after his four-year term is wide open as about one-third of voters in the Central American nation of about 5 million people have not made up their minds about who to back, polls say.

Costa Ricans say they want their next leader to tackle corruption and high unemployment rates as a priority during the four year term.

Rosemary Chaves, owner of a small grocery store in Puntarenas, the most populous city on the Costa Rican Pacific, said that while there were a lot of names on the ballot paper, none had credible proposals to address unemployment.

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