The politics of Costa Rica take place in a framework of a presidential, representative democratic republic, with a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the president and his cabinet, and the President of Costa Rica is both the head of state and head of government. Legislative power is vested in the Legislative Assembly. The president and 57 Legislative Assembly deputies are elected for four-year terms. The judiciary operates independent of the executive and the legislature but remains involved in the political process. Costa Rica is a republic with a strong system of constitutional checks and balances. Voting is compulsory in Costa Rica but it is not enforced.
The National Liberation Party, nicknamed the verdiblancos, is a political party in Costa Rica. The party is a member of the Socialist International.
The Broad Front is a left-wing political party in Costa Rica, the main component of the front is the Alternative of the Lefts Movement. They are defined by progressive, socialist, green, social justice, human rights and democratic ideas. Member of the Foro de Sao Paulo, part of the international Latin American Left Movement of democratic socialism.
Epsy Campbell Barr is a Costa Rican politician and economist who has been the First Vice-President of Costa Rica since 8 May 2018. She is Costa Rica’s first woman of African descent to become vice president, and the second female vice president of African descent in the Americas following Viola Burnham.
Costa Rica held parliamentary and presidential elections 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.
Costa Rica held parliamentary and presidential elections on Sunday, 2 February 2014 to elect a new president, two vice presidents, and 57 Legislative Assembly lawmakers. Voting is compulsory in Costa Rica, nevertheless abstentionism was 35 percent in 2006 and 32 percent in 2010. In accordance with Article 132 of the Constitution, the incumbent President, Laura Chinchilla Miranda, was ineligible to run for a second consecutive term.
Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera is a Costa Rican educator and politician who was the President of Costa Rica from 2014 to 2018. He is a member of the center-left Citizens' Action Party (PAC). Solís led the field in the 2014 presidential election, and won the presidency in a landslide election, earning more votes than any presidential candidate in the history of the nation. Solís has a long academic and political career, culminating in his election as the first President of Costa Rica to be a member of the PAC.
Elizabeth Bernardita Fonseca Corrales was a deputy in the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly from 2006 to 2010, representing San José. Fonseca holds a doctorate in History and American Society from the University of Paris. She was president of the Citizens' Action Party in 2010.
Juan Carlos Mendoza García is a Costa Rican politician and the country's current Ambassador to the United Nations. He was a deputy with the Citizens' Action Party during the 2010 to 2014 and served as President of the Legislative Assembly from 2011 to 2012.
Víctor Hugo Morales Zapata is a Costa Rican politician. He was a member of the Citizens' Action Party and the third deputy for San José for the 2014 to 2018 assembly. He resigned the party in 2017.
Ronald Solís Bolaños is a Costa Rican businessman and politician. He served as a deputy in the Legislative Assembly.
A primary election was held for the first time among the members of Costa Rica’s Citizens’ Action Party (PAC), known as the Citizens' National Convention for the selection of the party's candidate in the 2010 general election. This was a closed primary, as potential electors were required to register before the election up till April 30, 2009.
A primary election was held among the members of Costa Rica’s then ruling National Liberation Party (PLN) on June 7, 2009 in order to choose the PLN’s nominee for presidency in the 2010 general election. The two main candidates for the nomination were then vice-president Laura Chinchilla and San José Mayor Johnny Araya. Former security minister Fernando Berrocal also ran a basically testimonial candidacy. PLN’s main rival party, PAC, ran its own convention a month before.
A primary election was held among the members of Costa Rica’s National Liberation Party (PLN) on June 3, 2001 in order to choose PLN’s nominee for presidency in the 2002 general election. PLN was then the main opposition party facing then in government Social Christian Unity Party. This, as was common since the 70s, was an open primary and as such all Costa Ricans could vote in it with the only requirement be signing membership of the party moments before entering the polls.
The third primary election of the Citizens' Action Party was scheduled for July 9, 2017 in order to elect PAC's presidential candidate for the Costa Rican general election, 2018. Albeit rumors about possible candidates included former candidate and deputy Otton Solis, current Vice-President Ana Helena Chacón and former president of Congress and current UN ambassador Juan Carlos Mendoza, all of them denied having aspirations for the moment. Instead the first announcing his intention to be nominated was Minister Carlos Alvarado, former Minister of Social Issues and President of the Joint Social Welfare Institute and latter Minister of Labor under Luis Guillermo Solis' presidency. He was quickly followed by Economy Minister Welmer Ramos, both resigning their offices as the Constitution requires before February 2017. Congresswoman and former pre-candidate Epsy Campbell made her intentions public on March of the same year in what could have been Campbell's third attempt to be presidential nominee. But on March 27 Campbell withdraw from the race.
Costa Rica's National Liberation Party presidential primary is a primary election programmed for April 2nd, 2017 in order to choose the party's presidential nominee for the Costa Rican general election, 2018. PLN is currently the main opposition party to Luis Guillermo Solís' government. In case no candidate reaches the 40% of the votes a second round will be held on June among the two more voted candidates. Something that hasn't ever happen before.
Carlos Alvarado Quesada is a Costa Rican politician and writer, who is currently serving as the 48th President of Costa Rica. A member of the center-left Citizens' Action Party (PAC), Alvarado was previously Minister of Labor and Social Security during the Presidency of Luis Guillermo Solís.
General elections were held in Costa Rica in 2018 to elect both the President and Legislative Assembly. The first round of the presidential election was held on February 4, 2018, with the two highest-ranked candidates being Christian singer and Congressman Fabricio Alvarado Muñoz from the conservative National Restoration Party and writer and former Minister Carlos Alvarado Quesada from the progressive Citizens’ Action Party, gaining 24% and 21% of the votes respectively. As no candidate received more than 40% of the first round vote, a second round run-off election was held on April 1, 2018 and was won by Carlos Alvarado Quesada, with a landslide victory of 60.6% of the vote.
