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| Turnout | 517.000 [1] | ||||||||||||||||
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A primary election was held among the members of Costa Rica’s then ruling National Liberation Party (PLN) on June 7, [2] 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. [2] [3]
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.
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.
The National Liberation Party, nicknamed the verdiblancos, is a political party in Costa Rica. The party is a member of the Socialist International.
PLN primaries, known as National Conventions (Convención Nacional Liberacionista) were common place since the Party’s foundation, yet in the previous election of 2006 PLN’s nominee former president Óscar Arias seeking re-election ran unappose and was designated by the party’s National Assembly. Unlike its rival PAC, PLN's election was an open primary and as such every Costa Rican could vote as far as pledge written membership to the party (PLN holds open primaries since the 70s). [4] Debates among PLN and PAC’s candidates respectively were organized in different colleges, NGOs and news networks. [5]
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.
Former minister Antonio Álvarez Desanti had recently return to the party expressing his interest in the nomination, yet party regulations prevent his candidacy due to his recent participation in another party. Desanti dropped from the race supporting Chinchilla. While Chinchilla was seen as close to then incumbent president Arias and his faction, Araya was endorsed by his brother and previous candidate Rolando and by his uncle former president Luis Alberto Monge. The final results were 55% for Chinchilla, 41% for Araya and 2% for Berrocal. [1] Chinchilla will also win the presidential race in 2010. [2]
Antonio Álvarez Desanti is a Costa Rican politician, lawyer and businessman who has served twice as President of the Legislative Assembly. He was National Liberation Party candidate for the national elections of February, 2018.
Rolando Araya Monge is a Costa Rican socialist politician. He is a nephew of former president Luis Alberto Monge.
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.
Araya would maintain his political aspirations and would run unopposed in the next election cycle as other aspirants like Rodrigo Arias (former Prime Minister and Oscar Arias’ brother) and José María Figueres (former president) dropped their candidacies for the 2014 election, which was lost by Araya against PAC’s candidate Luis Guillermo Solís.
José María Figueres Olsen is a Costa Rican businessman and politician. After he left the presidency of Costa Rica in 1998, Figueres has also been involved in global issues such as climate change, sustainable development, and technology. He started his career as an engineer working in agribusiness. After a decade, he entered public service as Minister of Foreign Trade and then Minister of Agriculture. In 1994, he was elected President of Costa Rica, as the nation's youngest elected president of the 20th century. In 2000, he joined the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, and later he worked with Concordia 21 in Madrid. Since 2010, he has been Chairman of the Carbon War Room, an independent non-profit organization focused on the global transition to a low-carbon economy. On 27 March 2012, Sir Richard Branson announced that he was appointed as the new President of the Carbon War Room.
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.
