Costa Rican general election, 1974

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Costa Rican general election, 1974
Flag of Costa Rica.svg
  1970 3 February 1974 1978  
Turnout 79%

  Daniel Oduber 3 cropped.jpg No image.png
Nominee Daniel Oduber Fernando Trejos
Party National Liberation National Unification
Home state San José San José
Popular vote294,609 206,149
Percentage43.4% 30.4%

  No image.png Rodrigo Carazo.jpg
Nominee Jorge González Martén Rodrigo Carazo Odio
Party National Independent Democratic Renovation
Home state San José Cartago
Popular vote 73,788 61,820
Percentage 10.9% 9.1%

Resultados electorales provinciales 1953.png

In green provinces won by Oduber

President before election

José Figueres
National Liberation

Elected President

Daniel Oduber
National Liberation

Coat of arms of Costa Rica.svg
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Costa Rica

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 3 February 1974. [1] Daniel Oduber Quirós of the National Liberation Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 79.9%. [2]

Costa Rica country in Central America

Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, and Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island. It has a population of around 5 million in a land area of 51,060 square kilometers. An estimated 333,980 people live in the capital and largest city, San José with around 2 million people in the surrounding metropolitan area.

Daniel Oduber Quirós Chef of Costa Rica

Porfirio Ricardo José Luis Daniel Oduber Quirós was a Costa Rican politician, lawyer, philosopher, poet, and essayist. He served as the President of Costa Rica from 1974 to 1978. He is credited with the creation of the Sistema Nacional de Radio y Televisión and the Universidad Estatal a Distancia.

National Liberation Party (Costa Rica) political party

The National Liberation Party, nicknamed the verdiblancos, is a political party in Costa Rica. The party is a member of the Socialist International.

Contents

The Left was theoretically outlawed as the Constitution didn’t allowed the existence of Marxist parties, but the prohibition was not endorsed in practice by that time and even was lifted with a Constitutional reform for the next election. [3]

Left-wing politics supports social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. It typically involves a concern for those in society whom its adherents perceive as disadvantaged relative to others (prioritarianism) as well as a belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished. The term left-wing can also refer to "the radical, reforming, or socialist section of a political party or system".

Constitution of Costa Rica

The Constitution of Costa Rica is the supreme law of Costa Rica. At the end of the 1948 Costa Rican Civil War, José Figueres Ferrer oversaw the Costa Rican Constitutional Assembly, which drafted the document. It was approved on 1949 November 7. Several older constitutions had been in effect starting from 1812, with the most recent former constitution ratified in 1871. The Costa Rican Constitution is remarkable in that it abolished the Costa Rican military, making it the first nation to do so by law. Another unusual clause include an amendment asserting the right to live in a healthy natural environment.

Campaign

The government was affected in its popularity by the “Vesco Case” a corruption case involving then president José Figueres and his dubious connections with international criminal Robert Vesco, which caused heat for ruling party’s candidate Daniel Oduber. [3] Rodrigo Carazo, a former member of PLN and Congressman run as an independent candidate. Carazo had problems with Figueres when they both face each other in a primary election previously. Carazo promised to expel Vesco if he won, he also received the endorsement of former president José Trejos. [3]

A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, often a state.

President of Costa Rica head of state and head of government of Costa Rica

The President of Costa Rica is the head of state and head of government of Costa Rica. The President is currently elected in direct elections for a period of four years, which is not immediately renewable. Two Vice presidents are elected in the same ticket with the president. The president appoints the Council of Ministers. Due to the abolition of the military of Costa Rica in 1948, the president is not a Commander-in-chief, unlike the norm in most other countries, although the Constitution does describe him as commander in chief of the civil defense public forces.

A primary election is the process by which voters, either the general public or members of a political party, can indicate their preference for a candidate in an upcoming general election or by-election, thus narrowing the field of candidates.

Another heated issue was Communism in general, as the election was in the middle of the Cold War. Topics like the diplomatic relationships with the USSR (which candidate Jorge González Martén swear will end in his government). The Catholic Church made a public statement criticizing both Communism and savage Capitalism and calling for a third option. [3] Both PLN (Social Democrats) and the Christian Democratic Party claim to be that option. The traditional Left represented by Manuel Mora’s Socialist Action Party defended itself arguing that a previous archbishop Victor Manuel Sanabria expressed that Costa Rican catholics had no quarrel in being members of the Communist Party. [3] The far-right Free Costa Rica Movement also made a very expensive campaign against Mora's party on the media at the time. [3]

Communism socialist political movement and ideology

In political and social sciences, communism is the philosophical, social, political, and economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of the communist society, which is a socioeconomic order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money, and the state.

Cold War State of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc

The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union with its satellite states, and the United States with its allies after World War II. A common historiography of the conflict begins between 1946, the year U.S. diplomat George F. Kennan's "Long Telegram" from Moscow cemented a U.S. foreign policy of containment of Soviet expansionism threatening strategically vital regions, and the Truman Doctrine of 1947, and ending between the Revolutions of 1989 and the 1991 collapse of the USSR, which ended communism in Eastern Europe. The term "cold" is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars.

Catholic Church Christian church led by the Bishop of Rome

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with approximately 1.3 billion baptised Catholics worldwide as of 2017. As the world's "oldest continuously functioning international institution", it has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilisation. The church is headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope. Its central administration, the Holy See, is in the Vatican City, an enclave within the city of Rome in Italy.

Another notorious candidate was Gerardo Wenceslao Villalobos, aka GW, a very eccentric candidate nominated by the Democratic Party. Villalobos did a lot of crazy stunts and unusual activities for a candidate, like boxing and wrestling matches or trying to jump in parachute. [3]

The Democratic Party was a liberal political party in Costa Rica.

Results

President

CandidatePartyVotes%
Daniel Oduber Quirós National Liberation Party 294,60943.4
Fernando Trejos Escalante National Unification Party 206,14930.4
Jorge Gonzáles Martén National Independent Party 73,78810.9
Rodrigo Carazo Odio Democratic Renovation Party 61,8209.1
Gerdo Villalobos Garita Democratic Party 18,8322.8
Manuel Mora Socialist Action Party 16,0812.4
Jorge Arturo Monge Zamora Christian Democratic Party 3,4610.5
José Francisco Auilar Bulgarelli Costa Rican Socialist Party 3.4170.5
Invalid/blank votes21,183-
Total699,340100
Source: Nohlen
Popular Vote
National Liberation
43.4%
National Unification
30.4%
National Independent
10.9%
Democratic Renovation
9.1%
Democratic
2.8%
Socialist Action
2.4%
Christian Democratic
0.5%
Costa Rican Socialist
0.5%

Parliament

PartyVotes%Seats+/-
National Liberation Party 271,86740.927-5
National Unification Party 164,32324.716-6
National Independent Party 66,22210.06New
Democratic Renovation Party 51,0837.73New
Independent National Republican Party 32,4754.91New
Socialist Action Party 29,3104.420
Democratic Party 14,1612.11New
Christian Democratic Party 13,6882.100
Cartago Agrarian Union Party 8,0741.21+1
Costa Rican Socialist Party 6,0320.90New
Costa Rican People's Front 4,4480.70New
Independent Party 3,2820.50New
Invalid/blank votes34,078---
Total699,042100570
Source: Nohlen
Popular Vote
National Liberation
40.9%
National Unification
24.7%
National Independent
10%
Democratic Renovation
7.7%
Ind. National Republican
4.9%
Socialist Action
4.4%
Democratic
2.1%
Christian Democratic
2.1%
Cartago Agrarian Union
1.2%
Other
2%
Seats
National Liberation
47.4%
National Unification
28.1%
National Independent
10.6%
Democratic Renovation
5.3%
Socialist Action
3.5%
Ind. National Republican
1.7%
Democratic
1.7%
Cartago Agrarian Union
1.7%

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References

  1. Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p155 ISBN   978-0-19-928357-6
  2. Nohlen, p157
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hernández Naranjo, Gerardo. "Reseña de las elecciones presidenciales de 1974" (PDF) (in Spanish). Retrieved 13 April 2016.