2010 Costa Rican general election explained

Country:Costa Rica
Flag Year:state
Type:presidential
Previous Election:2006 Costa Rican general election
Previous Year:2006
Next Election:2014 Costa Rican general election
Next Year:2014
Election Date:7 February 2010[1]
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Embed:yes
Election Name:Presidential election
Type:presidential
Turnout:69.12%
Image1:Laura-Chinchilla-cropped.jpg
Candidate1:Laura Chinchilla
Party1:National Liberation Party (Costa Rica)
Running Mate1:Alfio Piva
Luis Liberman
Popular Vote1:896,516
Percentage1:46.91%
Candidate2:Ottón Solís Fallas
Party2:Citizens' Action Party (Costa Rica)
Running Mate2:Mónica Segnini
Julio Humphreys
Popular Vote2:478,877
Percentage2:25.05%
Image3:Otto Guevara (cropped 2).jpg
Candidate3:Otto Guevara Guth
Party3:Libertarian Movement (Costa Rica)
Running Mate3:Mario Quirós
Lorena San Román
Popular Vote3:399,788
Percentage3:20.92%
President
Before Election:Oscar Arias
Before Party:National Liberation Party (Costa Rica)
After Election:Laura Chinchilla
After Party:National Liberation Party (Costa Rica)
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Election Name:Legislative election
Seats For Election:All 57 seats in the Legislative Assembly
Majority Seats:29
Party1:National Liberation Party (Costa Rica)
Leader1:Laura Chinchilla Miranda
Percentage1:37.27
Seats1:24
Last Election1:25
Party2:Citizens' Action Party (Costa Rica)
Leader2:Ottón Solís Fallas
Percentage2:17.61
Seats2:11
Last Election2:17
Party3:Libertarian Movement (Costa Rica)
Leader3:Otto Guevara Guth
Percentage3:14.50
Seats3:9
Last Election3:6
Party4:Accessibility without Exclusion
Leader4:Óscar Andrés López Arias
Percentage4:9.05
Seats4:4
Last Election4:1
Party5:Social Christian Unity Party
Leader5:Luis Fishman Zonzinski
Percentage5:8.16
Seats5:6
Last Election5:5
Party6:Costa Rican Renovation Party
Leader6:Mayra González León
Percentage6:3.85
Seats6:1
Last Election6:0
Party7:Broad Front (Costa Rica)
Leader7:Eugenio Trejos Benavides
Percentage7:3.63
Seats7:1
Last Election7:1
Map:Elecciones legislativas de Costa Rica de 2010 - Diputados por Provincia.svg

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 7 February 2010. The ruling party before the election, the center-left National Liberation Party, put forward former Vice-President Laura Chinchilla as its presidential candidate, while the libertarian, Movimiento Libertario nominated former legislator Otto Guevara. Opinion polls before voting started consistently put Chinchilla as the front-runner, a trend confirmed in the election-night count, which showed her garnering 46.76% of the vote.[2]

The election was supervised by observers from several countries, as well as from the Organization of American States.[3] The incumbent president, Óscar Arias, was ineligible to run for a second consecutive term. This was the last time as of 2019, that the National Liberation Party has gotten more than 30% of the vote, the last time to this date that they have won the presidency, and the last time it has won any province in what is known as the Central Valley (the four provinces in the interior of the country: San José, Alajuela, Heredia and Cartago).

Presidential candidates

Candidates included:

Two weeks before the election, Patriotic Alliance and National Integration Party's candidates, Rolando Araya and Walter Muñoz, stopped their campaigns and endorsed Citizens' Action Party's candidate Otton Solís, in an effort to build a progressive alliance against Laura Chinchilla.[4]

Parliamentary elections

The swifting from a two-party system to a multi-party system was much more evident in this election[5] [6] [7] [8]

For the then three major parties; PLN, PAC and ML the voting for the presidential ballot was superior to the support in the legislative, as for example PLN presidential candidate Laura Chinchilla[5] received 46%[9] of the votes and PLN's legislative ballot only 37%.[10] Similarly PAC's candidate Ottón Solís with 25%[9] presidential against 17% legislative[1] and Otto Guevara with 20%[9] oppose to 14% legislative.[1] Contrary to PUSC whose candidate Luis Fishman received 3%[9] electoral support while his party received 8%.[1]

This was at the time PAC's worst electoral result in its history having the smallest faction in the Parliament[6] and ML's best result with to this date its biggest.[6] PLN only lost one seat. Left-wing Broad Front maintained its only seat in the person of future presidential nominee José María Villalta Florez-Estrada[6] and two Christian parties[11] for the first time had deputies at the same time; Costa Rican Renewal Party and its provincial offshoot National Restoration.[6]

Opinion polls

Results

President

At 9:08 p.m. local time on election day, 7 February second-placed candidate Otton Solis conceded defeat to Laura Chinchilla, who will become Costa Rica's first female president. With approximately 40% of the vote counted, Chinchilla was consistently surpassing the 40% threshold for victory in the first round, leading Solis by 47% to 24%, with third-placed candidate Otto Guevara trailing at 21.5%.[13]

By province

Province %width=60pxPLN %width=60pxPAC %width=60pxML %width=60pxPUSC %width=60pxPASE %width=60pxPRC %width=60pxOther %
46.628.917.63.62.10.60.6
45.326.521.93.21.80.80.5
49.723.519.44.22.10.40.7
46.627.619.53.21.80.60.7
48.917.326.74.41.30.80.6
41.617.531.45.01.71.90.9
51.415.923.36.11.61.20.6
Total46.825.120.93.91.90.70.8

Legislative Assembly

By province

ProvincePLNPACMLPUSCPASEPRCFAPRENAPOther
data-sort-type="number"%data-sort-type="number"Sdata-sort-type="number"%data-sort-type="number"Sdata-sort-type="number"%data-sort-type="number"Sdata-sort-type="number"%data-sort-type="number"Sdata-sort-type="number"%data-sort-type="number"Sdata-sort-type="number"%data-sort-type="number"Sdata-sort-type="number"%data-sort-type="number"Sdata-sort-type="number"%data-sort-type="number"Sdata-sort-type="number"%data-sort-type="number"Sdata-sort-type="number"%data-sort-type="number"S
35.5719.0412.327.4211.123.014.714.311.101.60
38.2519.9216.526.518.516.501.302.001.900.80
38.9317.0113.117.617.912.802.80-01.208.50
37.0219.1213.917.308.702.904.804.001.900.50
39.7214.3118.6113.815.104.302.20-01.101.00
33.3212.0120.1110.215.608.607.30-01.201.80
43.1311.6013.5111.0010.005.102.20-03.100.30
Total37.32417.61114.598.269.043.913.612.411.502.00

Municipal Councils

See also: 2010 Costa Rican municipal elections.

The elections of municipal councilors of Costa Rica in 2010 were an electoral process held in parallel with the presidential and legislative elections. In them the 495 tenure aldermen and the 495 alternates that conform the 81 Municipal Councils were chosen.

The Central Canton of San José, the most populous, named 13 aldermen. Desamparados and Alajuela named 11. Others less populated (Puntarenas, Limón, Pococí, Heredia, Cartago, La Unión, San Carlos, Goicoechea, Pérez Zeledón, etc.) named 9. Others even smaller (Tibás, Grecia, Vázquez de Coronado, Montes de Oca, Siquirres, Escazú, Turrialba, etc.) appointed 7 council members. Finally, the smallest (Turrubares, San Mateo, Santa Ana, Mora, Montes de Oro, Talamanca, etc.) named 5.

References

Bruce M. Wilson and Juan Carlos Rodríguez-Cordero: "The general election in Costa Rica, February 2010". In Electoral Studies, Volume 30, Issue 1, March 2011, pages 231-234.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 7 February 2010 Legislative Assembly Election Results - Costa Rica Totals. Election Resources. 13 March 2016.
  2. Web site: (in Spanish) . 2010-02-08 . 2010-02-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100211122142/http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2010/febrero/07/pais2255136.html . dead .
  3. Web site: Jara . Francisco . AFP: First female poised for Costa Rica presidency . https://archive.today/20130124161553/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gZx0yDwahBg3umqRGIX96uw4E--w . dead . 24 January 2013 . 2010-02-06 . 2010-08-21.
  4. Web site: Araya y Muñoz renuncian a ser candidatos y apoyan a Solís.
  5. Panorama of Parliament Elections 2010. International Parliamentary Union.
  6. News: Lehring. Gary. Costa Rican legislative elections show growing voter dissatisfaction with traditional choices. 13 March 2016. The Tico Times. 15 February 2014.
  7. Book: Landsford. Tom. Political Handbook of the World 2014. 13 March 2016. 9781483386263. 2014-03-20.
  8. Book: Landsford. Tom. Political Handbook of the World 2012. 13 March 2016. 9781608719952. 2012-04-02.
  9. Web site: 7 February 2010 Presidential Election Results - Costa Rica Totals. Elections Resources. 13 March 2016.
  10. Web site: 7 February 2010 Legislative Assembly Election Results - Costa Rica Totals. Election Resources. 13 March 2016.
  11. News: Lopez. Jaime. Civic Groups Move Against Gay Marriage in Costa Rica. 13 March 2016. Costa Rica Star. July 18, 2013.
  12. Web site: Chinchilla Leads, Guevara Gains in Costa Rica: Angus Reid Global Monitor . Angus-reid.com . 2010-08-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100205054502/http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/34985/chinchilla_leads_guevara_gains_in_costa_rica . 2010-02-05 . dead .
  13. Web site: Solís reconoce victoria de Chinchilla - EL PAÍS . nacion.com . 2010-08-21 . 2010-02-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100211122142/http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2010/febrero/07/pais2255136.html . dead .