Description of Electoral System

Political Organization: Democratic representative and united republic made up of 7 provinces.

Form of Government: Presidential.

• National Executive Power: the President, both the Chief of State and Head of Government, and Vice Presidents are directly elected on a single ticket by popular vote for a single four-year term.
• National Legislative Power: is held by the Legislative Assembly, composed of 57 members elected for four-year terms that may not be re-elected.

Electoral System

The President of the Republic: is elected using a majority system, in which more than 40% of the validly emitted votes is required to declare the winner. If this fails to occur a run off election between the two candidates that received the greatest amount of votes takes place.

The Congress of the Republic: is composed of 57 members elected by direct popular vote to serve a four-year term. Each province constitutes a district that elects Deputies in proportion to their population with respect to the national population.

2010 General Elections

On Sunday 7 February, elections took place to choose those that will serve as:

The voter roll consisted of 2'822,491 registered citizens, from which 69.08% cast their vote within the 2,018 electoral districts of the 81 cantones.

6,617 voting sites were installed, 37 of them in prisons and 35 in nursing homes.

Laura Chinchilla obtained 46.78% of the valid votes cast, while Ottón Solís got 25.15%, according to figures published by the Electoral Management Body, Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones.

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