As you might imagine there’s not a lot of hot news on Costa Rican Elections, Electoral Systems or Executive-Legislative Relations (aside from the CAFTA referendum). However there have been some interesting trends in the party system and presidential elections in the last decade. The 2002 presidential election of Abel Pacheco (a famous Costa Rican Poet) was the first election since the founding of Costa Rica’s democracy (in 1946) that a run-off election was required for a candidate to obtain the 40% plurality required to win presidential election. That same year the Supreme Court ruled the ban on presidential re-election was unconstitutional. Presidents can now run for re-election after sitting out for 2 election cycles. This opened the door for Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias’s 2006 re-election (his first term was 1986-1990). His victory was the closest first round victory in Costa Rica’s history. A big factor in the closeness of his victory was the rise of several small party candidates. Below is a table of the 2006 presidential elections.
Summary of the 5 February 2006 Costa Rica presidential election results
Candidates Votes %
Óscar Arias – National Liberation Party (Partido Liberación Nacional) 664,551 40.92 Ottón Solís – Citizens’ Action Party (Partido Acción Ciudadana) 646,382 39.80 Otto Guevara – Libertarian Movement Party (Partido Movimiento Libertario) 137,710 8.48 Ricardo Toledo – Social Christian Unity Party (Partido de Unidad Socialcristiana) 57,655 3.55 Antonio Álvarez Desanti – Union for Change Party (Partido Unión para el Cambio) 39,557 2.44 Jose Manuel Echandi Meza – National Union Party (Partido Unión Nacional) 26,593 1.64 Juan Jose Vargas Fallas – Homeland First Party (Partido Patria Primero) 17,594 1.08 Other parties 33,950 2.09 Total (Turnout 65.4 %) 1,623,992 100.0
The president holds a lot of power in Costa Rica, his election is concurrent with the unicameral legislature. He appoints the 8 state governors and his cabinet (including 2 vice presidents). This coupled with the plurality nature of the presidential elections has lead to a historically 2 party system (the effective number of legislative and presidental parties is just above 2, but rising). However, in recent years new parties are gaining ground in legislative and presidential elections. This could be for a number of reasons. First, presidentially elections are now being decided during run-off or close first round elections. If a run-off is expected small parties have greater incentive to compete in elections. Legislative elections are closed, blocked list proportional and the district magnitude is 8.1. Leading us to expect a higher number of effective parties. Finally, referendums are becoming more common and have been heavily influenced by smaller parties. Below is the 2006 legislative election results.
Summary of the 5 February 2006 Costa Rica legislative election results
|
Candidates |
Votes |
% |
Seats |
|
National Liberation Party (Partido Liberación Nacional) |
589,731 |
36.54 |
25 |
|
Citizens’ Action Party (Partido Acción Ciudadana) |
409,030 |
25.34 |
17 |
|
Libertarian Movement Party (Partido Movimiento Libertario) |
147,934 |
9.17 |
6 |
|
Social Christian Unity Party (Partido de Unidad Socialcristiana) |
126,284 |
7.82 |
5 |
|
Costa Rican Renovation Party (Partido Renovación Costariccense) |
55,798 |
3.46 |
0 |
|
National Union Party (Partido Unión Nacional) |
40,280 |
2.5 |
1 |
|
Union for Change Party (Partido Unión para el Cambio) |
37,994 |
2.35 |
0 |
|
Homeland First Party (Partido Patria Primero) |
26,438 |
1.64 |
0 |
|
National Rescue Party (Partido Rescate Nacional) |
32,909 |
2.04 |
1 |
|
Access without Exclusion (Accesibilidad sin Exclusión) |
25,690 |
1.59 |
1 |
|
Broad Front (Frente Amplio) |
17,751 |
1.10 |
1 |
|
Other parties |
104,122 |
6.45 |
0 |
|
Total (Turnout 65.2 %) |
1,613,961 |
100.0 |
57 |
As you can see several still small parties are winning a not-insignificant portion of the vote.
2 responses so far ↓
pilairps2008 // February 5, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Sorry about the first table. It looked normal before I hit the publish button. Anyway, the first number after the candidates name is the number of votes he received the second is the share of the total vote.
monicapachon // February 5, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Good use of your electoral rules knowledge!
About power of the president…
Remember that “power” is a relative term -. And certainly, the nomination powers of the president together with the reelection ban for legislators gives the President power and leverage over his party. However, in relative terms- the Presidency in Costa Rica is one of the least powerful in terms of legislative powers – They have no decree-, or exclusive introduction rights in legislation. It would seem that Costa Rica is close to the “high partisan – low constitutional powers”.
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