Costa Rican general election, 2010

Costa Rican general election, 2010

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Turnout	69.1%
Candidate Laura Chinchilla Ottón Solís Fallas Otto Guevara Guth Party National Liberation Citizens' Action Libertarian Movement Home state San José San José San José Percentage 46.91% 25.06% 20.92% Presidential vote 896,516 478,877 399,788 Legislative vote 708,043 334,636 275,518 Seats 24 11 9 Seat change 1 6 3   Candidate Luis Fishman Zonzinski Óscar Lopez Arias Mayra González León Party Social Christian Unity PASE Costa Rican Renewal Home state San José San José San José Percentage 3.8% 1% 0.9% Presidential vote 74,114 36,104 13,945 Legislative vote 155,047 171,858 73,150 Seats 6 4 1 Seat change 1 3 1   Candidate Eugenio Trejos Benavides Party Broad Front Home state Heredia Percentage 0.6% Presidential vote 6,782 Legislative vote 68,987 Seats 1 Seat change No change
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 Oscar Arias National Liberation Elected President Laura Chinchilla National Liberation

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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. ^[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.

Presidential candidates

Candidates included:

• Laura Chinchilla Miranda (ruling National Liberation Party, vice-president 2006-08)
• Ottón Solís (oppositional Citizens' Action Party, candidate in 2006)
• Otto Guevara (Movimiento Libertario, candidate in 2006)
• Luis Fishman (conservative Social Christian Unity Party, vice-president under Abel Pacheco)

Parliamentary elections

The swifting from a two-party system to a multi-party system was much more evident in this election ^{[4] [5] [6] [7]}

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 ^[4] received 46% ^[8] of the votes and PLN’s legislative ballot only 37%. ^[1] Similarly PAC’s candidate Ottón Solís with 25% ^[8] presidential against 17% legislative ^[1] and Otto Guevara with 20% ^[8] oppose to 14% legislative. ^[1] Contrary to PUSC whose candidate Luis Fishman received 3% ^[8] electoral support while his party received 8%. ^[1]

This was PAC’s worst electoral result in its history having the smallest faction in the Parliament ^[5] and ML’s best result with to this date its biggest. ^[5] 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 ^[5] and two Christian parties ^[9] for the first time had deputies at the same time; Costa Rican Renewal Party and its provincial offshoot National Restoration. ^[5]

Opinion polling

• CID-Gallup 24 January 2010: Chinchilla 43%; Guevara 30%; Solís 15%; Fishman 8%
• Borge & Asociados for Diario Extra opinion poll January 2010: Chinchilla 38.7%; Guevara 18.3%; Solís 9.6%; Fishman 3.7%
• Demoscopía for Al Día January 2010: Chinchilla 45.1%; Guevara 30.1%; Solís 9.5%; Fishman 3.8 % ^[10]
• December 2009: Chinchilla 36.7%; Guevara 16.2%; Solís 8.5%; Fishman 2.2%
• December 2009: Chinchilla 46.6%; Guevara 19.5%; Solís 8.3%; Fishman 4.1%
• October 2009: Chinchilla 53.0%; Guevara 15.7%; Solís 12.3%; Fishman 1.5%

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%. ^[11]

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Laura Chinchilla	National Liberation Party	863,803	46.78
	Ottón Solís	Citizens' Action Party	464,454	25.15
	Otto Guevara	Libertarian Movement	384,540	20.83
	Luis Fishman	Social Christian Unity Party	71,330	3.86
	Óscar López	Accessibility without Exclusion	35,215	1.91
	Mayra González	Costa Rican Renewal Party	13,376	0.72
	Eugenio Trejos	Broad Front	6,822	0.37
	Rolando Araya	Patriotic Alliance Party	3,795	0.21
	Walter Muñoz	National Integration Party	3,198	0.17
Invalid/blank votes			39,514	–
Total			1,950,847	100
Registered voters/turnout			2,822,491	69.12
Source: TSE

Popular Vote National Liberation   46.78% Citizens' Action   25.15% Libertarian Movement   20.83% Social Christian Unity   3.86% Acc. w/o Exclusion   1.91% Costa Rican Renewal   0.72% Broad Front   0.37%

By province

Province %	PLN %	PAC %	ML %	PUSC %	PASE %	PRC %	Other %
San José	46.6	28.9	17.6	3.6	2.1	0.6	0.6
Alajuela	45.3	26.5	21.9	3.2	1.8	0.8	0.5
Cartago	49.7	23.5	19.4	4.2	2.1	0.4	0.7
Heredia	46.6	27.6	19.5	3.2	1.8	0.6	0.7
Puntarenas	48.9	17.3	26.7	4.4	1.3	0.8	0.6
Limón	41.6	17.5	31.4	5.0	1.7	1.9	0.9
Guanacaste	51.4	15.9	23.3	6.1	1.6	1.2	0.6
Total	46.8	25.1	20.9	3.9	1.9	0.7	0.8

Legislative Assembly

Legislative Assembly-Popular vote
National Liberation			37.16%
Citizens' Action			17.68%
Libertarian Movement			14.48%
Acc. w/o Exclusion			9.17%
Social Christian Unity			8.05%
Costa Rican Renewal			3.97%
Broad Front			3.66%
National Restoration			1.62%
Patriotic Alliance			1.47%
Other			1.22%

Legislative Assembly-Seats
National Liberation			42.10%
Citizens' Action			19.29%
Libertarian Movement			15.79%
Social Christian Unity			10.52%
Acc. w/o Exclusion			7.01%
Costa Rican Renewal			1.75%
Broad Front			1.75%
National Restoration			1.75%

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	National Liberation Party	708,043	37.3	24	–1
	Citizens' Action Party	334,636	17.6	11	–6
	Libertarian Movement	275,518	14.5	9	+3
	Social Christian Unity Party	155,047	8.2	6	+1
	Accessibility without Exclusion	171,858	9.0	4	+3
	Costa Rican Renewal Party	73,150	3.9	1	+1
	Broad Front	68,987	3.6	1	0
	National Restoration Party	29,530	1.6	1	0
	Patriotic Alliance Party	28,349	1.5	0	New
	National Integration Party	14,643	0.8	0	0
	Cartago Agrarian Union Party	11,862	0.6	0	0
	Heredia Restoration Party	7,953	0.4	0	New
	Alajuela Restoration Party	7,298	0.4	0	New
	Cartaginese Transparency Party	4,590	0.2	0	New
	Green Ecologist Party	2,901	0.2	0	New
	Elderly Alliance Party	2,724	0.1	0	New
	Alajuelan Familiar Force Party	1,609	0.1	0	New
	Workers' and Farmers' Movement	1,127	0.1	0	New
Invalid/blank votes		32,883	–	–	–
Total		1,950,708	100	57	0
Registered voters/turnout		2,822,491	69.1	–	–
Source: Election Resources

By province

Province	PLN		PAC		ML		PUSC		PASE		PRC		FA		PREN		PAP		Other
	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S
San José	35.5	7	19.0	4	12.3	2	7.4	2	11.1	2	3.0	1	4.7	1	4.3	1	1.1	0	1.6	0
Alajuela	38.2	5	19.9	2	16.5	2	6.5	1	8.5	1	6.5	0	1.3	0	2.0	0	1.9	0	0.8	0
Cartago	38.9	3	17.0	1	13.1	1	7.6	1	7.9	1	2.8	0	2.8	0	-	0	1.2	0	8.5	0
Heredia	37.0	2	19.1	2	13.9	1	7.3	0	8.7	0	2.9	0	4.8	0	4.0	0	1.9	0	0.5	0
Puntarenas	39.7	2	14.3	1	18.6	1	13.8	1	5.1	0	4.3	0	2.2	0	-	0	1.1	0	1.0	0
Limón	33.3	2	12.0	1	20.1	1	10.2	1	5.6	0	8.6	0	7.3	1	-	0	1.2	0	1.8	0
Guanacaste	43.1	3	11.6	0	13.5	1	11.0	0	10.0	0	5.1	0	2.2	0	-	0	3.1	0	0.3	0
Total	37.3	24	17.6	11	14.5	9	8.2	6	9.0	4	3.9	1	3.6	1	2.4	1	1.5	0	2.0	0

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Costa Rica Elections in 2010 .

1. "7 February 2010 Legislative Assembly Election Results - Costa Rica Totals". Election Resources. Retrieved 13 March 2016. 
2. (in Spanish)
3. Jara, Francisco (2010-02-06). "AFP: First female poised for Costa Rica presidency". Google.com. Retrieved 2010-08-21. 
4. "Panorama of Parliament Elections 2010" (PDF). International Parliamentary Union. 
5. Lehring, Gary (15 February 2014). "Costa Rican legislative elections show growing voter dissatisfaction with traditional choices". The Tico Times. Retrieved 13 March 2016. 
6. Landsford, Tom. Political Handbook of the World 2014 . Retrieved 13 March 2016. 
7. Landsford, Tom. Political Handbook of the World 2012 . Retrieved 13 March 2016. 
8. "7 February 2010 Presidential Election Results - Costa Rica Totals". Elections Resources. Retrieved 13 March 2016. 
9. Lopez, Jaime (July 18, 2013). "Civic Groups Move Against Gay Marriage in Costa Rica". Costa Rica Star. Retrieved 13 March 2016. 
10. "Chinchilla Leads, Guevara Gains in Costa Rica: Angus Reid Global Monitor". Angus-reid.com. Retrieved 2010-08-21. 
11. "Solís reconoce victoria de Chinchilla - EL PAÍS". nacion.com. Retrieved 2010-08-21. 

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.