2014 Costa Rican general election

General elections were held in Costa Rica on Sunday, 2 February 2014 to elect a new president, two vice presidents, and 57 Legislative Assembly lawmakers.[1] In accordance with Article 132 of the constitution, incumbent President Laura Chinchilla Miranda was ineligible to run for a second consecutive term.[2]

2014 Costa Rican general election
2 February 2014 (first round)
6 April 2014 (second round)
Turnout68.19% (first round)
56.63% (second round)
Presidential election
 
Nominee Luis Guillermo Solís Johnny Araya
Party PAC PLN
Home state San José Alajuela
Running mate Helio Fallas
Ana Helena Chacón		 Jorge Pattoni
Silvia Lara
Popular vote 1,314,327 374,844
Percentage 77.81% 22.19%
President before election

Laura Chinchilla
PLN

 Elected President

Luis Guillermo Solís
PAC

Legislative election
Party Leader % Seats ±
PLN Johnny Araya Monge 25.7% 18 -6
PAC Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera 23.5% 13 +2
FA José María Villalta Florez-Estrada 13.1% 9 +8
PUSC Rodolfo Piza Rocafort 10.0% 8 +2
ML Otto Guevara Guth 7.9% 4 -5
PRC Justo Orozco Álvarez 4.1% 2 +1
PRN Carlos Avendaño Calvo 4.1% 1 0
PASE Óscar Andrés López Arias 4.0% 1 -3
ADC Mario Redondo Poveda 1.2% 1 New
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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 both rounds of the Presidential election.
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The ruling National Liberation Party put forward San José Mayor Johnny Araya Monge as its presidential candidate; the Libertarian Movement party nominated former legislator Otto Guevara Guth; the leftist Broad Front nominated José María Villalta Florez-Estrada; and the center-left Citizens' Action Party nominated Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera.

Opinion polls in December 2013 showed Araya ahead with 37 percent, Villalta close behind at 32 percent, Guevara at 15 percent, and Solís trailing at eight percent, suggesting the likelihood of a run-off vote in February.[3][4] Villalta's strong showing in the polls caused concern among Araya supporters and business leaders in Costa Rica. La Nacion, Costa Rica's most important newspaper and a historical ally of Liberacion Nacional, began a concerted series of attacks against Villalta, comparing him to Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. Political experts later concluded that this focus on Villalta helped Luis Guillermo Solis in the election.[5]

In the presidential election, Solís and Araya came first and second, respectively, with neither candidate reaching 40 percent of the valid poll in the first round of voting, so a second round of voting was held from 6am to 6pm on 6 April, the first run-off election since 2002.[3][6]

In a surprise move, Araya announced on 6 March that he would abandon his campaign for the run-off election. He stated that after weighing his chances it was only sensible to withdraw from the campaign. Recent polls had indicated that he was trailing badly behind Solís and he believed that spending money on campaigning was not prudent. Although Araya's action effectively handed the presidency to Solís, the run-off still had to take place since Costa Rican law does not allow for a candidate to withdraw from a run-off election.[7] Ultimately, Solís won the second round with 78 percent of the vote, a historic high in Costa Rica.[8][9] Unlike the first round, Solís won a majority in every province.[10]

Presidential candidates
Citizens' Action Party
Luis Guillermo Solís Helio Fallas and Ana Helena Chacón
for President for Vice Presidents
Foreign Ministry's Chief of Staff
(1986-1990)
Ambassador of Central American Affairs
(1994-1998)		 Minister of Planning
(1990-1994)
Minister of Housing
(2002-2006)		 Vice Minister of Public Safety
(2002-2006)
Deputy
(2006-2010)
National Liberation Party
Johnny Araya Jorge Pattoni and Silvia Lara
for President for Vice Presidents
San José Mayor
(1998- )		 General Manager
Dos Pino's Corporation
(1992-2013)		 President of
Joint Social Welfare Institute
(2002-2006)

Other presidential candidates
Candidates included in this section have received more than 2% support in popular vote.
José María Vilalta Otto Guevara Rodolfo Piza José Miguel Corrales
Deputy
(2010–2014)		 Deputy
(1998–2002)		 Executive President of Costa Rican Department of Social Security
(1998–2002)		 Deputy
(2002–2006)
Broad Front
Libertarian Movement
Social Christian Unity Party
New Homeland Party

Minor candidates

Less than 2% of popular support:

Opinion polls

If no candidate surmounts the 40% threshold, the two candidates who would qualify for the runoff are marked. No poll accurately predicted the first or second round voting results.

Date Pollster

Johnny Araya
(PLN)

Otto Guevara
(ML)

Rodolfo Piza
(R. Hernández before October 2013)
(PUSC)

L.G. Solís
(PAC)

J.M. Villalta
(FA)

Others

Aug 2013 Borge y Asociados[11] 52% 9.7% 23% 8.2% 3.5%
Aug 2013 CIEP[12] 20.2% 1.4% 12.4% 4.1% 4.5%
Sep 2013 Unimer[13] 27.5% 9.7% 10.6% 4.4% 19% 26%
Oct 2013 CIEP[14] 24% 9.9% 3% 4% 9.7% 1.3%
Nov 2013 Borge y Asociados[15] 26% 16% 4% 4% 19% 26%
Nov 2013 Cid Gallup[16] 45% 15% 8% 10% 21%
Dec 2013 Unimer[4] 19% 19% 5% 8% 22% 11%
Dec 2013 CIEP[17] 17% 10% 3% 5% 15% 1%
Dec 2013 Cid Gallup[18] 37% 15% 5% 9% 32%
14 Jan 2014 Cid Gallup[19] 39% 18% 5% 7% 26%
16 Jan 2014 Unimer[20] 20.3% 20.2% 3.6% 5.4% 22.2% 5.8%
21 Jan 2014 CIEP[21] 20.4% 11.2% 3.1% 9.5% 15.3% 4.6%
28 Jan 2014 Cid Gallup[22] 35.6% 17.6% 6.5% 15.6% 21% 3.8%
28 Jan 2014 CIEP[23] 17.4% 7.3% 3.4% 11.6% 14.4%

Results
Results by county in first round; orange PAC, green PLN and yellow FA.
Results of vote overseas, same color code.

President

The results of the first-round final count were declared on 17 February 2014,[24] with the results of the second-round eighth count being declared on 7 April 2014:[25]

Popular vote: First round
Citizens' Action
 
 30.64%
National Liberation
 
 29.71%
Broad Front
 
 17.25%
Libertarian Movement
 
 11.34%
Social Christian Unity
 
 6.02%
New Homeland
 
 1.50%
Other
 
 3.54%
Popular vote: Second round
Citizens' Action
 
 77.81%
National Liberation
 
 22.19%
Candidate Party First round Second round
Votes % Votes %
Luis Guillermo SolísCitizens' Action Party629,86630.641,314,32777.81
Johnny Araya MongeNational Liberation Party610,63429.71374,84422.19
José María Villalta Florez-EstradaBroad Front354,47917.25
Otto GuevaraLibertarian Movement233,06411.34
Rodolfo PizaSocial Christian Unity Party123,6536.02
José Miguel Corrales BolañosNew Fatherland Party30,8161.50
Carlos AvendañoNational Restoration Party27,6911.35
Justo OrozcoCosta Rican Renewal Party16,7210.81
Óscar LópezAccessibility without Exclusion10,3390.50
Sergio MenaNew Generation Party5,8820.29
Héctor MonestelWorkers' Party4,8970.24
José EchandNational Advance Party4,3880.21
Walter MuñozNational Integration Party3,0420.15
Invalid/blank votes43,747–23,5081.37
Total2,099,2191001,712,679100
Registered voters/turnout3,065,66768.1956.63

By province

First round

Province % PAC % PLN % FA % ML % PUSC % PPN % PREN % Other %
 San José 36.2 28.5 15.2 10.0 5.3 1.4 1.4 1.9
 Alajuela 31.1 29.8 18.3 10.4 5.4 2.1 1.1 1.8
 Cartago 34.8 27.8 14.7 11.4 6.3 2.1 0.9 1.9
 Heredia 38.6 25.8 16.5 9.8 1.2 1.2 1.6 5.3
 Puntarenas 14.1 34.4 23.2 14.6 8.5 0.7 2.0 2.6
 Limón 14.6 29.2 22.2 18.1 7.7 0.8 1.9 5.6
 Guanacaste 14.9 40.8 19.1 12.8 7.8 0.9 1.3 2.5
Total 30.6 29.7 17.3 11.3 6.1 1.5 1.4 2.2

Second round

Province PAC % PLN %
 San José 77.6 22.3
 Alajuela 78.9 21.1
 Cartago 80.3 19.6
 Heredia 80.8 19.1
 Puntarenas 73.1 26.8
 Limón 77.5 22.4
 Guanacaste 69.7 30.2
Total 77.8 22.1

Legislative Assembly

Although Solís' PAC received the most votes in the presidential elections,[26] the party did not won in the parliamentary voting making PLN the largest party in the Assembly with 18 deputies over PAC's 13.[27]

Leftist party Broad Front surprised with its results, achieving 9 seats,[28] first time ever that the Left achieves such a big number.[27] Social Christian Unity Party recover part of its former influence[28] turning into the fourth political party in legislative size even when its candidate Rodolfo Piza was the fifth in presidential vote.[29] The opposite happened to Otto Guevara’s right-wing Libertarian Movement,[28] fourth in presidential votes[29] but fifth in legislative and reducing drastically it number of deputies from 9 to 4.[28][27] Oscar Lopez’s PASE party also suffer a diminishment in deputies from 4 to 1 (Lopez himself).[28][30]

Three Christian parties oriented toward the Protestant minority[31] and very socially conservative also achieve deputies; Costa Rican Renewal Party 2, National Restoration 1 and Christian Democratic Alliance 1.[30]

Popular vote
National Liberation
 
 25.71%
Citizens' Action
 
 23.48%
Broad Front
 
 13.14%
Social Christian Unity
 
 10.02%
Libertarian Movement
 
 7.94%
National Restoration
 
 4.11%
Costa Rican Renewal
 
 4.06%
Acc. w/o Exclusion
 
 3.97%
New Homeland
 
 2.06%
New Generation
 
 1.22%
Christ. Dem. Alliance
 
 1.17%
Other
 
 3.12%
Seats
National Liberation
 
 31.58%
Citizens' Action
 
 22.81%
Broad Front
 
 15.78%
Social Christian Unity
 
 14.04%
Libertarian Movement
 
 7.02%
Costa Rican Renewal
 
 3.51%
National Restoration
 
 1.75%
Acc. w/o Exclusion
 
 1.75%
Christ. Dem. Alliance
 
 1.75%
Party Votes % Seats +/–
National Liberation Party526,53125.7118–6
Citizens' Action Party480,96923.4813+2
Broad Front269,17813.149+8
Social Christian Unity Party205,24710.028+2
Libertarian Movement162,5597.944–5
National Restoration Party84,2654.1110
Costa Rican Renewal Party83,0834.062+1
Accessibility without Exclusion81,2913.971–3
New Homeland Party42,2342.060New
New Generation Party25,0601.220New
Christian Democratic Alliance23,8861.171New
National Advance Party19,8950.970New
Workers' Party12,9980.6300
National Integration Party11,3070.5500
Transporters' Party5,6390.280New
Patriotic Alliance4,8530.2400
Viva Puntarenas Party4,4170.220New
Green Party2,1480.100New
Homel,, Equality and Dem. Party of Puntarenas1,3760.070New
Homeland, Equality and Democracy Party1,0880.050New
New Socialist Party2770.010New
Invalid/blank votes47,854–––
Total2,096,155100570
Registered voters/turnout3,065,66768.38––
Source: Election Resources

By province
Province PLN PAC FA PUSC ML PREN PRC PASE PPN PNG Other
% S % S % S % S % S % S % S % S % S % S % S
 San José 23.5 5 27.2 5 12.1 2 8.8 2 7.5 2 5.3 1 3.9 1 4.2 1 2.0 0 1.8 0 3.5 0
 Alajuela 27.4 4 25.2 3 14.0 2 8.3 1 7.7 1 3.2 0 4.0 0 4.1 0 3.0 0 0.8 0 2.4 0
 Cartago 24.4 2 23.5 2 11.1 1 10.7 1 7.1 0 2.4 0 1.5 0 4.6 0 2.2 0 0.9 0 11.6 1
 Heredia 23.9 2 31.5 2 12.7 1 9.1 1 7.6 0 4.7 0 2.4 0 3.9 0 1.6 0 1.0 0 1.6 0
 Puntarenas 28.5 2 12.8 1 14.8 1 15.3 1 9.0 0 4.2 0 3.3 0 3.9 0 0.9 0 1.3 0 5.9 0
 Limón 26.0 1 10.5 0 15.9 1 11.4 1 10.6 1 3.2 0 12.6 1 3.6 0 0.9 0 0.9 0 4.4 0
 Guanacaste 34.6 2 11.5 0 16.0 1 14.0 1 9.0 0 3.5 0 4.6 0 1.6 0 2.4 0 0.5 0 2.2 0
Total 25.7 18 23.5 13 13.1 9 10.0 8 7.9 4 4.1 1 3.9 1 3.9 1 2.1 0 1.2 0 4.4 1

Candidates elected

Fifty-seven legislators were elected and took office on 1 May 2014, eleven of whom had been members of the Legislative Assembly in the past. Five were from the National Liberation Party: Antonio Álvarez Desanti, Juan Luis Jiménez, Olivier Jiménez, Rolando González, and Sandra Piszk. Two were from the Citizen Action Party: Epsy Campbell and Ottón Solís. Mario Redondo of the Christian Democratic Alliance served previously with the Social Christian Unity Party. The others were Otto Guevara of the Libertarian Movement Party, Oscar López of Accessibility Without Exclusion, and Jorge Rodríguez of the Social Christian Unity Party.[32] The full list is as follows:[33]

ProvinceCédulaCandidateParty
 San José104300205Ottón Solís FallasPAC
San José106070983Epsy Campbell BarrPAC
San José104990698Víctor Hugo Morales ZapataPAC
San José108460152Marcela Guerrero CamposPAC
San José601780481Ruperto Marvin Atencio DelgadoPAC
San José104890842Antonio Álvarez DesantiPLN
San José103570156Sara Ángela Piszk FeinzilberPLN
San José400850902Carlos Manuel Arguedas RamírezPLN
San José700490709Maureen Cecilia Clarke ClarkePLN
San José202751177Juan Luis Jiménez SuccarPLN
San José104710261Ana Patricia Mora CastellanosFA
San José104110109Jorge Arturo Arguedas MoraFA
San José105270922Humberto Vargas CorralesPUSC
San José106730022Rosibel Ramos MadrigalPUSC
San José105440893Otto Guevara GuthPML
San José112260846Natalia Díaz QuintanaPML
San José108820284Gerardo Fabricio Alvarado MuñozPRN
San José107890915Óscar Andrés López AriasPASE
San José108910592Gonzalo Alberto Ramírez ZamoraPRC
 Alajuela202740540Rolando González UlloaPLN
Alajuela202700539Aracelli Segura RetanaPLN
Alajuela109780035Michael Jake Arce SanchoPLN
Alajuela206470280Silvia Vanessa Sánchez VenegasPLN
Alajuela204060127Javier Francisco Cambronero ArguedasPAC
Alajuela900500822Nidia María Jiménez VásquezPAC
Alajuela110350156Franklin Corella VargasPAC
Alajuela204830663Edgardo Vinicio Araya SibajaFA
Alajuela203440441Ligia Elena Fallas RodríguezFA
Alajuela104410073Rafael Ángel Ortiz FábregaPUSC
Alajuela106730801José Alberto Alfaro JiménezPML
 Cartago302880372Paulina María Ramírez PortuguezPLN
Cartago302350106Julio Antonio Rojas AstorgaPLN
Cartago104110201Emilia Molina CruzPAC
Cartago106670558Marco Vinicio Redondo QuirósPAC
Cartago302990664José Francisco Camacho LeivaFA
Cartago301940611Jorge Rodríguez ArayaPUSC
Cartago105890526Mario Redondo PovedaADC
 Heredia105120548Henry Mora JiménezPAC
Heredia204740785Marlene Madrigal FloresPAC
Heredia108490121Rony Monge SalasPLN
Heredia401300696Lorelly Trejos SalasPLN
Heredia401470385José Antonio Ramírez AguilarFA
Heredia401300350William Alvarado BogantesPUSC
 Guanacaste106070406Juan Rafael Marín QuirósPLN
Guanacaste501880832Marta Arabela Arauz MoraPLN
Guanacaste204240362Ronal Vargas ArayaFA
Guanacaste502950673Johnny Leiva BadillaPUSC
 Puntarenas503090116Karla Vanessa Prendas MatarritaPLN
Puntarenas202820663Olivier Ibo Jiménez RojasPLN
Puntarenas110230742Gerardo Vargas RojasPUSC
Puntarenas502560320Carlos Enrique Hernández ÁlvarezFA
Puntarenas104160452Laura María Garro SánchezPAC
 Limón900840835Danny Hayling CarcachePLN
Limón302420343Gerardo Vargas VarelaFA
Limón502170327Abelino Esquivel QuesadaPRC
Limón107880624Luis Alberto Vásquez CastroPUSC
Limón303050502Carmen Quesada SantamaríaPML

References
  1. Costa Rica's 2014 election season is officially open Archived 2013-11-11 at the Wayback Machine The Tico Times, 2013-10-02.
  2. Constitución Política de la República de Costa Rica Archived February 7, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Asamblea Legislativa de Costa Rica. Retrieved: 2013-12-28. (in Spanish)
  3. Newest poll shows Araya and Villalta heading for a runoff election Archived 2014-01-09 at the Wayback Machine The Tico Times, 2013-12-18.
  4. Encuesta de Unimer: Costa Rica sin favorito a dos meses de elecciones La Nación, 2013-12-01. (in Spanish)
  5. Frajman, Eduardo "The General Election in Costa Rica, February/April 2014" Electoral Studies, Vol. 35, 2014, pp. 61-66
  6. Supreme Elections Tribunal begins manual recount of presidential votes The Tico Times, 2014-02-04.
  7. Costa Rica government's presidential candidate withdraws BBC World News, 2014-03-06.
  8. Live Costa Rica presidential election results The Tico Times, 2014-04-06.
  9. "Mapa de Resultados Elecciones Costa Rica Abril 2014" [Costa Rican Map of April 2014 Electoral Results]. RESULTADOS ELECTORALES EN MAPA SEGUNDA RONDA ELECTORAL (in Spanish). San José: La Nación. Retrieved 7 April 2014.
  10. Bermúdez Aguilar, Andrés; Efrén López Madrigal (7 April 2014). "PAC ganó elecciones con más de un millón de votos" [PAC wins election with more than one million votes]. La Prensa Libre (Costa Rica) (in Spanish). San José. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 7 April 2014.
  11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-01-07. Retrieved 2014-01-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-01-19. Retrieved 2014-01-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. http://www.nacion.com/nacional/politica/Nueva-Unimer-Johnny-Araya-electoral_0_1368063225.html
  14. http://www.teletica.com/Noticias/29705-Sondeo-de-la-UCR-Araya-firme-Villalta-y-Guevara-se-reparten-lo-que-dejo-el-doctor.note.aspx
  15. http://www.diarioextra.com/Dnew/noticiaDetalle/217947
  16. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-01-03. Retrieved 2014-01-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. http://www.semanariouniversidad.ucr.cr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12079&Itemid=70
  18. https://www.larepublica.net/app/cms/www/index.php?pk_articulo=533309288
  19. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-01-18. Retrieved 2014-01-20.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  20. http://www.nacion.com/nacional/elecciones2014/Pais-indeciso-camina-segunda-electoral_0_1390860962.html
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  22. Cerrada lucha por la Presidencia entre cuatro candidatos, informa-TICO.com, 28 January 2014
  23. Nueva encuesta del CIEP: Indecisión crece a pocos días de las elecciones, Semanario, 28 January 2014
  24. Resultados Electorales: Total General Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones 2014-02-17. (in Spanish)
  25. Corte Número 8 Archived 2014-04-08 at the Wayback Machine Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones 2014-04-07. (in Spanish)
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  30. "February 2, 2014 Legislative Assembly Election Results - Costa Rica Totals". Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  31. Lopez, Jaime (July 18, 2013). "Civic Groups Move Against Gay Marriage in Costa Rica". Costa Rica Star. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  32. 11 lawmakers return to Costa Rica's Legislative Assembly for second term The Tico Times, 2014-05-01.
  33. Declaratoria de elección de Diputados a la Asamblea Legislativa de la República de Costa Rica 2014-2018 Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones, 2014-03-03. (in Spanish)
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