The vice presidential candidate of Costa Rica's leading political party has resigned ahead of runoff elections scheduled for April 7.

Luis Fishman, of the Social Christian Unity Party, submitted his resignation Tuesday, citing disagreements over who would run the ticket's second round of campaigning.

However, Mr. Fishman is not legally allowed to remove his name from voting for the second round. If his party wins the April election, he will be sworn in as vice president.

However, the party's presidential candidate, Abel Pacheco, says he expects Mr. Fishman to resign from office immediately after the swearing in.

The election runoff is a first in Costa Rica's modern, democratic history. The Social Christian Unity Party won the first round of Costa Rica's presidential balloting on Sunday, with about 39 percent of the vote. The party was just short of the 40 percent needed for an outright majority.

The runoff will be against Rolando Araya of the National Liberation Party, who won about 31 percent of the vote in Sunday's election.

Some information for this report provided by AP.

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