Costa Rican general election, 2010

Costa Rican general election, 2010

February 7, 2010[1]

Turnout 69.1%   Candidate Laura Chinchilla Miranda Ottón Solís Fallas Otto Guevara Guth Party National Liberation Citizens' Action Libertarian Movement Home state San José San José San José Percentage 46.91%[1] 25.06%[1] 20.92%[1] Presidential vote 896,516 [1] 478.877[1] 399.788[1] 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 Accessibility without Exclusion Costa Rican Renovation Home state San José San José San José Percentage 3.8%[1] 1%[1] 0.9%[1] Presidential vote 74.114 [1] 36.104 [1] 13.945[1] 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%[1] Presidential vote 6.782 [1] Legislative vote 68,987 Seats 1 Seat change No change

In green provinces won by Chinchilla

President before election Oscar Arias National Liberation Elected President Laura Chinchilla National Liberation

Costa Rica
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Costa Rica held parliamentary and presidential elections on February 7, 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 Renovation 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, February 7, 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]

Legislative Assembly

References

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

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.

Elections and referendums in Costa Rica
Presidential elections	1844 1847 1853 1859 1860 1863 1866 1889 1893 1897 1901 1905 1909 1913 1917 1919 1923 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1953 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014
Parliamentary elections	1844 1847 1853 1859 1860 1863 1866 1889 1893 1897 1901 1905 1909 1913 1915 1917 1919 1921 1923 1925 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 (Feb) 1948 (Dec) 1949 1953 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014
Local elections	2002 2006 2010 2016
Referendums	1870 2007
See also: Elections in the Federal Republic of Central America