The Legislative Assembly forms the unicameral legislative branch of the Costa Rican government. The national congress building is located in the capital city, San José, specifically in Carmen district of the San José canton.
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.
General elections were held in Costa Rica on 4 February 1962. Francisco Orlich Bolmarcich of the National Liberation Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 81%.
General elections were held in Costa Rica on 6 February 1966. José Joaquín Trejos Fernández of the National Unification Party won the presidential election, whilst the National Liberation Party won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 81%.
General elections were held in Costa Rica on 1 February 1970. Former President José Figueres Ferrer of the National Liberation Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 83%.
General elections were held in Costa Rica on 3 February 1974. Daniel Oduber Quirós of the National Liberation Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 80%.
General elections were held in Costa Rica on 6 February 1994. José María Figueres of the National Liberation Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 81%.
General elections were held in Costa Rica on 1 February 1998. Miguel Ángel Rodríguez of the Social Christian Unity Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 70%, the lowest since the 1950s.
General elections were held in Costa Rica on Sunday, 2 February 2014 to elect a new president, two vice presidents, and 57 Legislative Assembly lawmakers. In accordance with Article 132 of the constitution, incumbent President Laura Chinchilla Miranda was ineligible to run for a second consecutive term.
The Christian Democratic Alliance is a political party in the Cartago constituency of Costa Rica. It was founded in 2012, and is led by Mario Redondo Poveda, a former President of Congress and former member of the Social Christian Unity Party. In the general election of 2014, Redondo was elected to the only seat in the Legislative Assembly won by the ADC. Another party of the same name was founded in San José but did not participate in the election. According to its statutes the ADC intends to enrol at national level in the future.
The National Restoration Party is a political party in Costa Rica. It was founded in 2005 by Carlos Avendaño Calvo mostly by dissidents of Costa Rica's historical Christian party, Costa Rican Renewal, after its then only deputy, Carlos Avendaño Calvo, left. Avendaño would successfully return to Congress because of the party from 2010 to 2014. Even though he had personal differences with Justo Orozco, both were able to work together in defending the same agenda, mainly the conservative views of the evangelical community. The party's candidate in the presidential election of 2014 was Avendaño, who received 1.35 percent of the vote.
Municipal elections were held in Costa Rica on 7 February 2016, in order to elect the mayors of the 81 cantons of the country plus a proportional number of aldermen (regidores) in each of the canton's municipal councils, a syndic for every district and members of the District Councils and a total of 8 Intendants for districts and islands located too far away from the administrative center.
The 2006 Costa Rica local elections were held on December 3, 2006. In the February 2006 general elections, Costa Rica elected president, vice-presidents, deputies of the Legislative Assembly and municipal councilors in the general elections. The December 2006 elections were held to elect cantonal mayors, members of the District Councils of each of the nation’s districts and intendants of eight special autonomous districts and islands.
Municipal and local elections were held for the first time in Costa Rica on 1 December 2002. This was the first time citizens of the 81 cantons were able to directly choose their mayors as previously the municipal executive was appointed by the city council. A syndic and 4 District Councilors were also elected for each canton’s district as 8 intendants for especial districts with administrative autonomy.
Costa Rica’s municipal system is organized under the Municipal Code, the specific law that regulates the local governments. Municipalities are the second-level administration in Costa Rica after the central government. Each one of the 82 cantons of Costa Rica has a Municipality or Municipal Government constituted by a mayor and a proportional number of members of the Municipal Council. Districts of each of the cantons also have their local authorities and representatives. Some of the services manage by local governments include; solid waste management, building and administration of local roads, parks, libraries and schools, recollection of municipal taxes and in some cases local security. Worth noticing that in Costa Rica city and municipality are not the same thing, as a canton can have several cities within its borders, generally as districts.
The Workers' Party is a far-left Trotskyist political party of Costa Rica. The party was founded on 1 May 2012 on the basis of the student organization Movement toward Socialism led by labor union leader and lawyer Hector Monestel, and currently holds no seats in parliament nor municipal offices. It is a member of the International Workers League – Fourth International. Highly critical of the more moderate Broad Front, it proclaims itself as a "classist and socialist alternative". Internationalism is one of its guidelines and as such it proposes the re-establishment of the Federal Republic of Central America abolished in 1838, reuniting all Central American countries in one single socialist Federation. It also defends feminist, environmentalist and pro-LGBTI ideas.
General elections were held in Costa Rica in 1894. Voters elected members of the electoral college on 4, 5 and 6 February, who in turn elected the president on 1 April.
Municipal elections were held in Costa Rica on Sunday, February 2, 2020, to elect all municipal offices in the country: mayors, aldermen, syndics, district councilors and the intendants of eight special autonomous districts, together with their respective alternates in all cases. These will be the fifth direct municipal elections since the amendment to the 1998 Municipal Code and the second to be held mid-term since the 2009 reform.
Carmen Elena Quesada Santamaría is a Costa Rican politician and teacher. She joined the Social Christian Unity Party as a teenager and later, the Libertarian Movement. In 2009 and 2010, she occupied a seat in the Directive Board of the Atlantic Basin Ports and Economical Development Administrative Board. In the 2010 and 2014 Costa Rican general election, she contested as a candidate for the Legislative Assembly, being elected as a deputy representing Limón Province for the 2014–2018 administration. On 2 September 2015, she left the Libertarian Movement, remaining as an independent for the rest of the term. As a deputy, she was a member of the investigative commission for the Panama Papers and elected First Secretary of the Legislative Director for the 2017–2018 period.
Municipal elections were held in Costa Rica on Sunday, February 4, 2024, to elect all municipal offices in the country: mayors, aldermen, syndics, district councilors and the intendants of seven special autonomous districts, together with their respective alternates in all cases. These were the sixth direct municipal elections since the amendment to the 1998 Municipal Code and the second to be held mid-term since the 2009 reform.
