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Costa Rica

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.