Costa Rican general election, 2006

Last updated
Costa Rica general election, 2006
Flag of Costa Rica.svg
  2002 5 February 2006 [1] 2010  
Turnout 65.4%

  Oscar Arias.jpg Otton Solis Fallas, PAC - Costa Rica (cropped).JPG Otto Guevara (cropped 2).jpg
Candidate Óscar Arias Sánchez Ottón Solís Fallas Otto Guevara Guth
Party National Liberation Citizens' Action Libertarian Movement
Home state Heredia San José San José
Percentage42.26% [1] 41.11% [1] 8.76% [1]
Presidential vote664.551 [1] 646.382 [1] 137.710 [1]
Legislative vote589,731 409,030 147,934
Seats 25 17 6
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 6Increase2.svg 3 No change

  No image.svg Antonio Alvarez Desanti dando discurso en La Florida de Hatillo.jpg No image.svg
Candidate Ricardo Toledo Carranza Antonio Álvarez Desanti José Manuel Echandi Meza
Party Social Christian Unity Union for Change National Union
Home state San José San José San José
Percentage 3.67% [1] 2.52% [1] 1.69% [1]
Presidential vote 57.655 [1] 39.557 [1] 26.593 [1]
Legislative vote 126,284 37,994 40,280
Seats 5 0 1
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 14 First time Do not participate

Costa Rica general election 2006 - Legislative & Presidential Election Results.svg

Map on the left shows the seats won by each party by province. The map on the right shows which party won the plurality in each province in the Presidential Election.

President before election

Abel Pacheco
Social Christian Unity

Elected President

Oscar Arias
National Liberation

Coat of arms of Costa Rica.svg
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Costa Rica
Oscar Arias OscarArias.jpg
Óscar Arias

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 5 February 2006. In the presidential election, Óscar Arias of the National Liberation Party (Partido Liberación Nacional), a former president and Nobel Peace Laureate, was victorious over Ottón Solís of the Citizens' Action Party (Partido Acción Ciudadana) and twelve other minor-party candidates. Although Arias was expected to win by a wide margin, the actual polling reports were unexpectedly close. However, early results showed the contest to be closer than it actually was. The preliminary official report, after 88.45% of the vote counted, showed the result for President of the Republic almost tied between Arias with 40.51% of the vote and Ottón Solís with 40.29%. Given the small difference of only 3250 votes, the Superior Electoral Tribunal announced that a manual count of all the votes would start immediately and no official winner would be announced until that process was completed, approximately two weeks after the election.

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.

Óscar Arias President of Costa Rica

Óscar Arias Sánchez was President of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2010. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his efforts to end the Central American crisis.

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

In the parliamentary election, the National Liberation Party won the mosts seats.

Presidential election

Candidates

There were fourteen candidates running for the presidency in the 2006 elections. However, only a few rose in the polls above the error margin.

Óscar Arias

Arias had been seen as the front runner throughout the campaign. Arias served as President of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990. He is best known worldwide for his role in the signing of the Esquipulas Peace Agreement which is regarded as the crucial plan which led to the eventual end to the series of civil wars that took place throughout Central America, most notably in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, during the 1980s. For his role he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987. With the monetary portion of the award he started the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, an advocacy group for demilitarization, women's rights and conflict resolution through dialogue. Through this group Arias helped to settle conflicts throughout Latin America, participating in the process to demilitarize Haiti and Panama. [2]

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.

The Esquipulas Nicaraguan Peace Agreement, also known as the Central American Peace Accords, was a peace initiative in the mid-1980s to settle the military conflicts that had plagued Central America for many years, and in some cases for decades. It built upon groundwork laid by the Contadora Group from 1983 to 1985. The agreement was named for Esquipulas, Guatemala, where the initial meetings took place. The US Congress lobbying efforts were helped by one of Capitol Hill's top lobbyists, William C. Chasey.

Nobel Peace Prize One of five Nobel Prizes established by Alfred Nobel

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. Since March 1901, it has been awarded annually to those who have "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

Arias made the fight against poverty and corruption the headlining issues of his campaign. During public appearances he promised to provide scholarships to poor families so their children could stay in school and not have to work (a promise he fulfilled on his first day in office), and spoke about the urgency of signing the Central American Free Trade Agreement in order to create high-paying jobs for Costa Rica's youth. [3]

With the pre-election opinion polls favoring Óscar Arias, he did not foresee such stiff competition from his closest rival Ottón Solís. At first count, there was a difference of only 0.4% (Óscar Arias = 40.6% vs Ottón Solís = 40.2%), or about 3,200 votes. Large numbers of voters supporting candidates other than Óscar Arias and Ottón Solís chose to cast their ballot for Ottón Solís at the last minute, with the objective of keeping Óscar Arias from winning the elections.

Election laws in Costa Rica dictate, among other things, that a candidate requires 40% of the votes to avoid a second round of voting for election of the President. Further, in case of a tie with candidates having the same number of votes, the elder of the two wins the seat.

Ottón Solís

Solís was the candidate of the Citizens' Action Party (PAC). Solís is a co-founder of the party and was its candidate in the 2002 presidential elections. In that election he ran against Rolando Araya of the National Liberation Party (PLN) and Abel Pacheco of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC). On 3 February 2002 the first round was held, in which Solís lost. He was running in an effort to break up the two-party system in Costa Rica. [4]

Ottón Solís Costa Rican politician

Ottón Solís Fallas is a Costa Rican politician. He graduated with a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Costa Rica in 1976 and gained a Master's Degree in Economics from the University of Manchester in 1978. He is currently serving his second term as deputy, was a founding member of the Citizens' Action Party, and ran as its three-time presidential candidate. As an academic, he has taught at several universities in the United States and Costa Rica.

Citizens Action Party (Costa Rica)

The Citizens' Action Party is a center-left political party in Costa Rica.

Social Christian Unity Party political party

The Social Christian Unity Party is a centre-right political party in Costa Rica.

Solís is a critic of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). He has called for the renegotiations of CAFTA to add protection for vulnerable farmers and industrial companies. He has said that in its current form, "CAFTA will increase poverty in Central America because it will displace farmers and industrial workers and will increase the cost of health care." [5] He also said that "I never imagined CAFTA was going to be so one sided," and "The law of the jungle benefits the big beast. We are a very small beast." [6] Solís sees several possible detrimental aspects that could come from CAFTA. First he claims that it will cause the breakup of the public telecommunications and electricity monopolies which will have to be privatized. Additionally he thinks that the lowered trade barriers will cause a flood of cheap food products from the United States to come in and this will hurt the internal market for small-scale farmers. [7]

United States federal republic in North America

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Otto Guevara

Otto Guevara Guth is the co-founder, along with Rigoberto Stewart and Raúl Costales Domínguez, of the Movimiento Libertario, a libertarian party. He was elected to the legislature in 1998. Guevara originally ran as a libertarian politician who claimed to believe in cutting of government programs, which he saw as excessive. Some of these programs included government subsidies for food, US$10,000 subsidies for housing, and free textbooks paid for by the state. He also rejected government funding for the party's political campaigns. [8]

For the 2006 election, a faction of the Movimiento Libertario led by Guevara took control of the party and backed down on many of the party's initial positions. They have decided to accept government funding, which was previously qualified by him as immoral, and on several interviews he has claimed that public education needs to be strengthened by more funding, that the country needs to build more jails, and several other issues that will actually increase government spending.

On the foreign policy front, Guevara is in favor of advancing civil liberties abroad. He is a critic of the Castro government in Cuba, accusing politicians in Latin America of being accomplices to the lack of political liberty by not speaking out against the country's government. Guevara has linked the lack of political liberties in Cuba to what he sees as an overextension of the state in Costa Rica. Specifically he sees that eliminating regulations which, according to him, affect the development of the economy, as being a part of his program to protect political liberty. Specifically he sees regulations on agroindustry as being a considerable problem. [9]

He hasn't yet made clear if his position on these issues changed along with the others. Given that his position on Cuba was likely the result of influence by Raúl Costales, an exiled Cuban who was one of the party founders and a long-time party secretary, and that he separated himself from the party after they voted to accept money from the government, it's likely Guevara's foreign policy has changed.

Ricardo Toledo

Toledo is the candidate for the ruling Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) and used to be a close friend of president Abel Pacheco. He has a long history within the party as, among other things, President of the Youth of the Social Christian Unity Party, Coordinator of the party's southern districts, the head of management for the party, and senior officer and Vice-minister of the Ministry of Labor. He has also served in the legislature. [10]

Antonio Álvarez

Antonio Álvarez is the candidate for the party that he heads, the Union for Change Party (UPC).

He is running on a platform of political change. In an interview with newspaper Al Día Álvarez said that one thing that he believes negatively affects the country is unregulated immigration of Nicaraguans. He recommends stricter penalties for employers of immigrants who might be exploiting the Nicaraguans for cheap labor, and for increased use of documentation for immigrants.

On the economic front, Álvarez is interested in helping to build infrastructure because he believes it is essential to the continued economic development of Costa Rica. He is in favor of using the grant of public work and the emergency road network plan to build up the highways. He believes that a major problem with the health system is that it is inadequately funded and that violators are not penalized. Specifically he points to businesses who are not paying in order to have enough money to fund changes to the medical system. He is not in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage but is in favor of extending the benefits of marriage over to a civil union. In order to fight corruption in the municipalities and to ensure that money reaches the level that it is supposed to, Álvarez recommends more oversight in the hiring process so that the most qualified and honest people are in the positions where money distribution is involved. He is in favor of programs which encourage entrepreneurship, especially among the younger generation. Also for college students, he is not in favor of eliminating exams for the baccalaureate, but rather wants to expand education through increased infrastructure, new programs including secondary schools, and diversifying education through the regions. [11]

Campaign

Polemic over the Central American Free Trade Agreement was influential in the campaign as many candidates and parties took positions in support or reject of the treaty and Costa Rican society was split over the issue. [12] [13]

Results

President

Popular Vote
National Liberation
40.9%
Citizens' Action
39.8%
Libertarian Movement
8.5%
Social Christian Unity
3.6%
Union for Change
2.4%
National Union
1.6%
Homeland First
1.1%
Costa Rican Renewal
1.0%
Other
1.1%
CandidatePartyVotes%
Óscar Arias National Liberation Party 664,55140.9
Ottón Solís Citizens' Action Party 646,38239.8
Otto Guevara Libertarian Movement 137,7108.5
Ricardo Toledo Social Christian Unity Party 57,6553.6
Antonio Álvarez Union for Change Party 39,5572.4
José Echandi National Union Party 26,5931.6
Juan Vargas Homeland First Party 17,5941.1
Bolívar Serrano Costa Rican Renewal Party 15,5391.0
Walter Muñoz National Integration Party 5,1360.3
José VillalobosDemocratic Nationalist Alliance3,6700.2
Vladimir de la Cruz Democratic Force 3,0200.2
Álvaro Montero National Rescue Party 2,4300.1
Humberto VargasUnited Left Coalition2,2910.1
José ArcePatriotic Union1,8640.1
Invalid/blank votes39,256
Total1,663,248100
Registered voters/turnout2,550,61365.2
Source: Election Resources

By province

Province PLN % PAC % ML % PUSC % UpC % PUN % PPP %Other %
Bandera de San Jose (Costa Rica).svg  San José 38.9 42.4 8.3 2.8 2.7 1.9 1.1 1.9
Bandera de la Provincia de Alajuela.svg  Alajuela 40.5 43.8 6.6 2.7 2.2 1.3 1.0 1.8
Bandera de Cartago (Costa Rica).svg  Cartago 40.8 38.2 10.3 3.3 2.8 1.8 1.3 1.4
Bandera de la Provincia de Heredia.svg  Heredia 39.2 43.7 7.7 2.8 2.4 1.5 0.9 1.8
Bandera de la Provincia de Puntarenas.svg  Puntarenas 47.2 30.1 9.6 6.5 1.8 1.0 1.1 2.7
Bandera de la Provincia de Limon.svg  Limón 40.4 29.6 13.5 6.5 2.7 1.9 1.2 4.3
Bandera de la Provincia de Guanacaste.svg  Guanacaste 49.9 31.3 6.5 5.9 1.6 1.1 0.8 2.8
Total 40.9 39.8 8.5 3.6 2.4 1.6 1.1 2.1

Legislative Assembly

While PLN managed to return as the main political force in the Assembly, PAC become for the first time and till this date second largest political group in the Parliament. [14] PUSC on the other hand, affected by corruption scandals, [15] [16] suffered a humiliating defeat passing from be the first parliamentary party with 19 deputies to only 5. The Libertarian Movement kept its 6 seats [14] while the newly resurrected National Union Party led by former Costa Rican Ombudsman José Manuel Echandi won one only seat for Echandi himself (who later will resign from the party, living it seatless).

Three then regional political parties won one seat each; socialist Broad Front, disable people’s right party Accessibility without Exclusion and Christian party National Restoration. Broad Front’s seat went for Spanish émigré José Merino and was the return of the Left in the Parliament after one period without representation. [13] The recently founded party Unión for Change made by PLN’s dissident Antonio Álvarez Desanti did not won any seat. [17]

Legislative Assembly: Popular vote
National Liberation
36.54%
Citizens' Action
25.34%
Libertarian Movement
9.17%
Social Christian Unity
7.82%
Costa Rican Renewal
3.46%
National Union
2.5%
Union for Change
2.35%
National Restoration
2.04%
Homeland First
1.64%
Acc. w/o Exclusion
1.59%
Broad Front
1.10%
Other
6.45%
Legislative Assembly: Seats
National Liberation
43.86%
Citizens' Action
29.82%
Libertarian Movement
10.52%
Social Christian Unity
8.77%
National Union
1.75%
National Restoration
1.75%
Acc. w/o Exclusion
1.75%
Broad Front
1.75%
Asamblea Legislativa de Costa Rica 2006-2010.png
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
National Liberation Party 589,73136.525 +8
Citizens' Action Party 409,03025.317 +3
Libertarian Movement 147,9349.260
Social Christian Unity Party 126,2847.85–14
Costa Rican Renewal Party 55,7983.60–1
National Union Party 40,2802.51New
Union for Change Party 37,9942.40New
National Restoration Party 32,9092.01New
Accessibility without Exclusion 25,6901.61New
Homeland First Party 26,4381.60New
Broad Front 17,7511.11New
Democratic Nationalist Alliance14,5370.90New
Democratic Force 13,6750.800
National Integration Party 12,9450.800
Agrarian Labour Action Party 11,7130.700
Cartago Agrarian Union Party 9,3950.600
Patriotic Union Party8,6120.50New
Alajuelan Democratic Action Party7,8670.50New
United Left Coalition5,7440.40New
Guanacaste Independence Party5,0100.30New
Authentic Heredian Party3,5560.20New
Provincial Integration Party2,8350.20New
New Feminist League Party2,3570.10New
Green Ecologist Party 1,8850.10New
Workers' and Farmers' Movement1,5070.10New
Cartaginese People's Agrarian Force Party1,4820.10New
Cartaginese Turrialban Authentic Party1,0020.10New
Invalid/blank votes48,938
Total1,662,899100570
Registered voters/turnout2,550,61365.2
Source: Election Resources

By province

Province PLN PAC ML PUSC PRC PUN UpC PPP FD PIN Other
% S % S % S % S % S % S % S % S % S % S % S
Bandera de San Jose (Costa Rica).svg  San José 33.67 26.15 9.22 6.22 2.10 2.81 2.20 2.10 0.80 1.10 13.83
Bandera de la Provincia de Alajuela.svg  Alajuela 37.35 27.74 7.81 6.91 4.20 2.50 2.40 1.30 0.70 0.50 8.70
Bandera de Cartago (Costa Rica).svg  Cartago 35.23 27.73 10.41 7.10 2.00 1.90 2.80 1.40 0.70 1.10 9.80
Bandera de la Provincia de Heredia.svg  Heredia 36.43 30.62 9.00 8.30 4.20 1.90 2.20 1.60 0.70 0.80 4.30
Bandera de la Provincia de Puntarenas.svg  Puntarenas 44.72 18.61 10.01 12.81 5.40 1.30 2.20 1.60 1.60 0.30 2.00
Bandera de la Provincia de Limon.svg  Limón 37.02 17.41 11.71 12.31 7.20 3.80 3.10 1.40 1.60 0.80 3.70
Bandera de la Provincia de Guanacaste.svg  Guanacaste 44.63 16.61 7.20 10.90 4.90 3.10 1.80 0.80 0.70 0.40 8.90
Total 36.525 25.317 9.26 8.25 3.50 2.51 2.40 1.60 0.80 0.80 9.53

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