With promises of a "tough" approach to security and constitutional reforms, Laura Fernández has won the first round of Costa Rica's presidential elections by an overwhelming majority and will be the new president. With the vote count nearly complete, the candidate from the Sovereign People's Party—who presented herself as the "heir" of current President Rodrigo Chaves—has obtained more than 48% of the votes, placing her well ahead of the second-place candidate, the social democrat Álvaro Ramos, who garnered 3%. Fernández, at only 39 years old, becomes the second woman to win the presidency in Costa Rican history, following the social democrat Laura Chinchilla, who governed from 2010 to 2014. "The mandate given to me by the sovereign people is..." she declared in her victory speech, in which she declared the end of a political cycle and pledged to found "the third republic," alluding to institutional and constitutional reforms.