Costa Rican general election, 2002

Costa Rica

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General elections were held in Costa Rica on 3 February 2002.^[1] For the first time in the country's history, no candidate in the presidential election passed the 40% threshold.^[2] This meant a second round of voting had to be held on 7 April, which saw Abel Pacheco of the Social Christian Unity Party defeat the National Liberation Party's Rolando Araya Monge.^[3]

The parliamentary election was also fragmented owing to the emergence of a well-supported third party (the Citizens' Action Party), breaking the two-party mould of previous elections.^[4] The Social Christian Unity Party emerged as the largest party, but held only 19 of the 57 seats,^[5][6] nine fewer than the previous lowest since the number of seats was raised to 57 in the 1960s.^[7] The result did not favour Pacheco, affecting his ability to govern and forcing him to seek alliances and consensus to get legislation approved.^[8]

Despite the close contest, voter turnout was only 68.8% on 3 February, the lowest since the 1958 elections. For the second round of the presidential elections it fell to 60.2%, the lowest since 1949.^[9]

Background

Before the election, the country's Supreme Electoral Tribinal attempted to make several reforms to the electoral system. These included allowing independents to run in local elections, using electronic voting machines, allowing Costa Ricans living abroad to vote, and allowing voters to choose the top two places on parliamentary lists.^[2] However, the changes were rejected by the Legislative Assembly, which noted that independent candidature was incompatible with the constitution, and that electronic voting could not be guaranteed to be secure or transparent.^[2]

Results

President

Candidate	Party	First round		Second round
		Votes	%	Votes	%
Abel Pacheco	Social Christian Unity Party	590,277	38.6	776,278	58.0
Rolando Araya Monge	National Liberation Party	475,030	31.1	563,202	42.0
Ottón Solís	Citizens' Action Party	400,681	26.2
Otto Guevara	Movimiento Libertario	25,815	1.7
Justo Orozco Álvarez	Costa Rican Renovation Party	16,404	1.1
Walter Muñoz Céspedes	National Integration Party	6,235	0.4
Vladimir De la Cruz De Lemos	Democratic Force	4,121	0.3
Walter Coto Molina	Coalition Change 2000	3,970	0.2
Rolando Angulo Zeledón	General Union	2,655	0.2
Daniel Reynolds Vargas	Patriótico Nacional	1,680	0.1
Marvin Calvo Montoya	Christian National Alliance	1,271	0.1
Pablo Angulo Casasola	National Rescue Party	905	0.0
Invalid/blank votes		39,573	-	33,463	-
Total		1,569,418	100	1,372,943	100
Source: Nohlen

Parliament

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/-
Social Christian Unity Party	453,201	29.8	19	-8
National Liberation Party	412,383	27.1	17	-6
Citizens' Action Party	334,162	22.0	14	New
Movimiento Libertario	142,152	9.3	6	+5
Costa Rican Renovation Party	54,699	3.6	1	0
Democratic Force	30,172	2.0	0	-3
National Integration Party	26,084	1.7	0	-1
Coalition Change 2000	12,992	0.8	0	New
Agrarian Labour Action Party	10,890	0.7	0	-1
Independiente Obrero	8,044	0.5	0	New
Patriótico Nacional	7,123	0.5	0	New
Cartago Agrarian Union Party	6,974	0.5	0	0
Christian National Alliance	6,825	0.4	0	0
General Union	5,883	0.4	0	0
National Rescue Party	4,937	0.3	0	0
Partido Agrario Nacional	2,595	0.2	0	New
Cartago Agrarian Force	1,390	0.1	0	0
Convergencia Nacional	1,348	0.1	0	0
Invalid/blank votes	47,484	-	-	-
Total	1,569,338	100	57	0
Source: Nohlen

References

1. ^ Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p155 ISBN 9780199283576
2. ^ ^{a b c} Nohlen, p. 150.
3. ^ "Election profile: Costa Rica". International Foundation for Electoral Systems. 1 September 2006. http://www.electionguide.org/results.php?ID=406. Retrieved 26 June 2011. 
4. ^ Nohlen, p. 149.
5. ^ Election profile: Results IFES
6. ^ "Costa Rica: Parliamentary Chamber: Asamblea Legislativa: Elections held in 2002". Inter-Parliamentary Union. http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/2073_02.htm. Retrieved 26 June 2011. 
7. ^ Nohlen, pp. 174–175.
8. ^ Nohlen, pp. 150–151.
9. ^ Nohlen, pp. 156–157.