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]
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Presidential election | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 68.84% (first round)  1.15pp60.22% (second round) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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All 57 seats in the Legislative Assembly 29 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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Many analysts consider this election the beginning of the end of Costa Rica's decades-long two party system.[4][5][6] For the first time in many years alternative political forces become really relevant in the Parliament and the plenary had three large party groups; PUSC (19), PLN (17) and PAC (14).[7]
While PUSC won the presidential election and the majority in Congress, PLN became the primal opposition force in Parliament. Centre-left PAC with a progressive proposal seem to had gravely affected traditional third forces at the left of the spectrum like Democratic Force that fail to win any seat on that election even when for some years was Costa Rica's main third party.[7] Right-wing Libertarian Movement also increases its representation from one to six deputies[7] while conservative[8] Costa Rican Renewal Party won one seat as usual.[7]
It was the first time in Costa Rica an evangelical Christian party, the Christian National Alliance, nominated a catholic, biologist and professor Marvin Calvo Montoya, as its presidential candidate. It was also the last presidential election of the Christian National Alliance.
Despite the close contest, voter turnout was only 69% on 3 February the lowest since the 1958 elections. For the second round of the presidential elections it fell to 60%, the lowest since 1949.[9]
Background
editBefore 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
editPresident
edit| Candidate | Party | First round | Second round | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
| Abel Pacheco | Social Christian Unity Party | 590,277 | 38.58 | 776,278 | 57.95 | |
| Rolando Araya Monge | National Liberation Party | 475,030 | 31.05 | 563,202 | 42.05 | |
| Ottón Solís | Citizens' Action Party | 400,681 | 26.19 | |||
| Otto Guevara | Libertarian Movement | 25,815 | 1.69 | |||
| Justo Orozco Álvarez | Costa Rican Renewal Party | 16,404 | 1.07 | |||
| Walter Muñoz Céspedes | National Integration Party | 6,235 | 0.41 | |||
| Vladimir de la Cruz | Democratic Force | 4,121 | 0.27 | |||
| Jorge Walter Coto Molina | Coalition Change 2000 | 3,970 | 0.26 | |||
| Rolando Angulo Zeledón | General Union Party | 2,655 | 0.17 | |||
| Daniel Reynolds Vargas | National Patriotic Party | 1,680 | 0.11 | |||
| Marvin Calvo Montoya | Christian National Alliance Party | 1,271 | 0.08 | |||
| José Hine García | National Rescue Party | 905 | 0.06 | |||
| Pablo Galo Angulo Casasola | Independent Workers' Party | 801 | 0.05 | |||
| Total | 1,529,845 | 100.00 | 1,339,480 | 100.00 | ||
| Valid votes | 1,529,845 | 97.48 | 1,339,480 | 97.56 | ||
| Invalid votes | 32,332 | 2.06 | 27,457 | 2.00 | ||
| Blank votes | 7,241 | 0.46 | 6,006 | 0.44 | ||
| Total votes | 1,569,418 | 100.00 | 1,372,943 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 2,279,851 | 68.84 | 2,279,851 | 60.22 | ||
| Source: Election Resources | ||||||
By province
editFirst round
| Province % | PUSC % | PLN % | PAC % | ML % | PRC % | PIN % | FD % | Other % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 San José
|
36.6 | 28.5 | 31.1 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.7 |
 Alajuela
|
37.8 | 34.1 | 24.7 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.6 |
 Cartago
|
35.4 | 31.8 | 28.4 | 1.9 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 1.0 |
 Heredia
|
36.1 | 26.8 | 33.2 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.7 |
 Puntarenas
|
45.0 | 33.8 | 15.8 | 2.5 | 1.7 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.9 |
 Limón
|
48.6 | 28.4 | 14.9 | 2.8 | 3.1 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 1.5 |
 Guanacaste
|
44.3 | 40.6 | 12.1 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.8 |
| Total | 38.6 | 31.1 | 26.2 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.9 |
Second round
| Province | PUSC % | PLN % |
|---|---|---|
| San José
|
57.7 | 42.3 |
| Alajuela
|
56.1 | 43.9 |
| Cartago
|
55.6 | 44.4 |
| Heredia
|
58.1 | 41.9 |
| Puntarenas
|
59.7 | 40.3 |
| Limón
|
67.0 | 33.0 |
| Guanacaste
|
57.1 | 42.9 |
| Total | 58.0 | 42.0 |
Parliament
edit | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Social Christian Unity Party | 453,201 | 29.78 | 19 | –8 | |
| National Liberation Party | 412,383 | 27.10 | 17 | –6 | |
| Citizens' Action Party | 334,162 | 21.96 | 14 | New | |
| Libertarian Movement | 142,152 | 9.34 | 6 | +5 | |
| Costa Rican Renewal Party | 54,699 | 3.59 | 1 | 0 | |
| Democratic Force | 30,172 | 1.98 | 0 | –3 | |
| National Integration Party | 26,084 | 1.71 | 0 | –1 | |
| Coalition Change 2000 | 12,992 | 0.85 | 0 | New | |
| Agrarian Labour Action Party | 10,890 | 0.72 | 0 | –1 | |
| Independent Workers' Party | 8,044 | 0.53 | 0 | New | |
| National Patriotic Party | 7,123 | 0.47 | 0 | New | |
| Cartago Agrarian Union Party | 6,974 | 0.46 | 0 | 0 | |
| Christian National Alliance Party | 6,825 | 0.45 | 0 | New | |
| General Union Party | 5,883 | 0.39 | 0 | 0 | |
| National Rescue Party | 4,937 | 0.32 | 0 | 0 | |
| National Agrarian Party | 2,595 | 0.17 | 0 | New | |
| Cartago Agrarian Force Party | 1,390 | 0.09 | 0 | New | |
| National Convergence Party | 1,348 | 0.09 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 1,521,854 | 100.00 | 57 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 1,521,854 | 96.97 | |||
| Invalid votes | 28,461 | 1.81 | |||
| Blank votes | 19,023 | 1.21 | |||
| Total votes | 1,569,338 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 2,279,851 | 68.84 | |||
| Source: Election Resources | |||||
By province
edit| Province | PUSC | PLN | PAC | ML | PRC | FD | PIN | Other | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | |
| San José
|
27.1 | 6 | 24.2 | 5 | 27.0 | 6 | 11.8 | 2 | 3.6 | 1 | 1.7 | 0 | 1.8 | 0 | 2.8 | 0 |
| Alajuela
|
30.2 | 4 | 30.5 | 4 | 20.7 | 2 | 7.5 | 1 | 2.8 | 0 | 1.3 | 0 | 1.4 | 0 | 5.4 | 0 |
| Cartago
|
25.7 | 2 | 25.4 | 2 | 20.8 | 2 | 7.3 | 1 | 2.0 | 0 | 3.7 | 0 | 4.5 | 0 | 10.4 | 0 |
| Heredia
|
27.5 | 1 | 24.3 | 1 | 27.6 | 2 | 10.7 | 1 | 3.5 | 0 | 2.3 | 0 | 1.0 | 0 | 3.0 | 0 |
| Puntarenas
|
37.8 | 2 | 29.8 | 1 | 12.9 | 1 | 10.0 | 1 | 4.2 | 0 | 1.8 | 0 | 0.4 | 0 | 3.2 | 0 |
| Limón
|
37.3 | 2 | 26.2 | 2 | 12.7 | 1 | 8.1 | 1 | 5.6 | 0 | 2.7 | 0 | 0.8 | 0 | 9.4 | 0 |
| Guanacaste
|
37.9 | 2 | 39.1 | 2 | 10.3 | 0 | 2.8 | 0 | 6.2 | 0 | 1.2 | 0 | 0.4 | 0 | 2.2 | 0 |
| Total | 29.8 | 19 | 27.1 | 17 | 22.0 | 14 | 9.3 | 6 | 3.6 | 1 | 2.0 | 0 | 1.7 | 0 | 4.6 | 0 |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p155 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
- ^ a b c Nohlen, p. 150.
- ^ "Election profile: Costa Rica". International Foundation for Electoral Systems. 1 September 2006. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
- ^ Landsford, Tom (20 March 2014). Political Handbook of the World 2014. ISBN 9781483386263. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
- ^ Landsford, Tom (2 April 2012). Political Handbook of the World 2012. ISBN 9781608719952. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
- ^ Greenspana, Eliot; Gill, Nicholas; O'Malley, Charlie; Gilsenan, Patrick; Perill, Jisel. Elecciones legislativas de Costa Rica de 2002. Frommer's Central America.
- ^ a b c d "5 February 2002 Legislative Assembly Election Results - Costa Rica Totals". Election Resources. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
- ^ Lopez, Jaime (18 July 2013). "Civic Groups Move Against Gay Marriage in Costa Rica". Costa Rica Star. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
- ^ Nohlen, pp. 156–157.