Description of Electoral System

(Courtesy of IFES election guide)

The President is elected by popular vote to serve a 4-year term. In the Legislative Assembly (Asamblea Legislativa) 57 members are elected by direct popular vote to serve 4-year terms.

Electoral Systems Snapshot

(Courtesy of Interntional IDEA)

*Click on link for definition

WANT MORE ELECTION-RELATED STATS FOR COSTA RICA? Go to "external databases" OR "comparative data" on the left-hand menu of this page and choose your area of interest.

Most recent national elections

(Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Costa Rica held a presidential election on 5 February 2006. The presidential election was held concurrently with elections to the Legislative Assembly, the country's 57-member unicameral national legislature. Óscar Arias of the National Liberation Party (Partido Liberación Nacional), a former president and Nobel Peace Laureate, was victorious over Ottón Solís of the Citizens' Action Party (Partido Acción Ciudadana) and twelve other minor-party candidates.

Early results showed the contest to be closer than it actually was. The preliminary official report, after 88.45% of the vote counted, showed the result for President of the Republic almost tied between Arias with 40.51% of the vote and Ottón Solís with 40.29%. Given the small difference of only 3250 votes, the Superior Electoral Tribunal announced that a manual count of all the votes would start immediately and no official winner would be announced until that process was completed, approximately two weeks after the election.

Although electoral law does provide for a run-off vote in presidential elections (a mechanism first used in the election of Abel Pacheco in 2002), the rules state that a second round of voting is to be held only if no candidate manages to secure at least 40% of the vote, which was not the case in this instance.

On 7 March, the official results showed Arias beat Solis by 18,169 votes (1.2% of valid votes cast).

R E F E R E N D U M

Results, October 8, 2007

On Sunday October 8th, 2007, Costa Rican people decided to say "yes" to the referendum. Counted almost 90% of the votes, 51.7% of them backed the Central American Free Trade Agreement with USA. This treaty covers other countries of the Region: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

To see provisional results by province, click here.

More than 1.5 millions of voters cast their votes during the polling day. This number represents a voter turnout of almost 60%. The electoral roll includes a number of 2.5 millions of voters.

Get in touch with the Centre through our e-mail or phone us at:

+52 (55) 5449-0446

+52 (55) 5449-0450

To send a fax:

+52 (55) 5449-0448

+52 (55) 5449-0457