2002 Costa Rican general election

3 February 2002 (2002-02-03) (first round) 7 April 2002 (2002-04-07) (second round)

Presidential election

Nominee Abel Pacheco Rolando Araya Party PUSC PLN Popular vote 776,278 563,202 Percentage 57.95% 42.05%

First round results Second round results

President before election Miguel Ángel Rodríguez PUSC Elected President Abel Pacheco PUSC

Parliamentary election

All 57 seats in the Legislative Assembly 29 seats needed for a majority

Party Leader % Seats +/– PUSC Abel Pacheco 29.78 19 −8 PLN Rolando Araya Monge 27.10 17 −6 PAC Ottón Solís 21.96 14 New PML Otto Guevara 9.34 6 +5 PRC Justo Orozco 3.59 1 0 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

Politics of Costa Rica
Constitution Abortion law LGBT rights
Executive President (list) Rodrigo Chaves Robles Vice Presidents Stephan Brunner Mary Munive
Legislature Legislative Assembly (History) President: Rodrigo Arias Sánchez
Judiciary Supreme Court of Justice President: Fernando Cruz Castro
Administrative divisions Provinces and comarcas Cantons Districts Local government Indigenous territories
Elections Recent elections General: 2014 2018 2022 2007 CAFTA referendum Political parties
Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship Minister: Rodolfo Solano Diplomatic missions of / in Costa Rica Passport Visa requirements Visa policy
Costa Rica portal Other countries

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 3 February 2002.^[1] For the first time in the country's history, no candidate in the presidential election passed the 40% threshold.^[2] This meant a second round of voting had to be held on 7 April which saw Abel Pacheco of the Social Christian Unity Party defeat the National Liberation Party's Rolando Araya Monge.^[3]

Many analysts consider this election the beginning of the end of Costa Rica's decades-long two party system.^[4][5][6] For the first time in many years alternative political forces become really relevant in the Parliament and the plenary had three large party groups; PUSC (19), PLN (17) and PAC (14).^[7]

While PUSC won the presidential election and the majority in Congress, PLN became the primal opposition force in Parliament. Centre-left PAC with a progressive proposal seem to had gravely affected traditional third forces at the left of the spectrum like Democratic Force that fail to win any seat on that election even when for some years was Costa Rica's main third party.^[7] Right-wing Libertarian Movement also increases its representation from one to six deputies^[7] while conservative^[8] Costa Rican Renewal Party won one seat as usual.^[7]

It was the first time in Costa Rica an evangelical Christian party, the Christian National Alliance, nominated a catholic, biologist and professor Marvin Calvo Montoya, as its presidential candidate. It was also the last presidential election of the Christian National Alliance.

Despite the close contest, voter turnout was only 69% on 3 February the lowest since the 1958 elections. For the second round of the presidential elections it fell to 60%, the lowest since 1949.^[9]

Background

Before the election, the country's Supreme Electoral Tribinal attempted to make several reforms to the electoral system. These included allowing independents to run in local elections, using electronic voting machines, allowing Costa Ricans living abroad to vote, and allowing voters to choose the top two places on parliamentary lists.^[2] However, the changes were rejected by the Legislative Assembly, which noted that independent candidature was incompatible with the constitution, and that electronic voting could not be guaranteed to be secure or transparent.^[2]

Results

President

Candidate		Party	First round		Second round
			Votes	%	Votes	%
	Abel Pacheco	Social Christian Unity Party	590,277	38.58	776,278	57.95
	Rolando Araya Monge	National Liberation Party	475,030	31.05	563,202	42.05
	Ottón Solís	Citizens' Action Party	400,681	26.19
	Otto Guevara	Libertarian Movement	25,815	1.69
	Justo Orozco Álvarez	Costa Rican Renewal Party	16,404	1.07
	Walter Muñoz Céspedes	National Integration Party	6,235	0.41
	Vladimir de la Cruz	Democratic Force	4,121	0.27
	Jorge Walter Coto Molina	Coalition Change 2000	3,970	0.26
	Rolando Angulo Zeledón	General Union Party	2,655	0.17
	Daniel Reynolds Vargas	National Patriotic Party	1,680	0.11
	Marvin Calvo Montoya	Christian National Alliance Party	1,271	0.08
	José Hine García	National Rescue Party	905	0.06
	Pablo Galo Angulo Casasola	Independent Workers' Party	801	0.05
Total			1,529,845	100.00	1,339,480	100.00
Valid votes			1,529,845	97.48	1,339,480	97.56
Invalid votes			32,332	2.06	27,457	2.00
Blank votes			7,241	0.46	6,006	0.44
Total votes			1,569,418	100.00	1,372,943	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			2,279,851	68.84	2,279,851	60.22
Source: Election Resources

By province

First round

Province %	PUSC %	PLN %	PAC %	ML %	PRC %	PIN %	FD %	Other %
San José	36.6	28.5	31.1	1.6	0.8	0.6	0.2	0.7
Alajuela	37.8	34.1	24.7	1.4	0.9	0.3	0.2	0.6
Cartago	35.4	31.8	28.4	1.9	0.7	0.5	0.4	1.0
Heredia	36.1	26.8	33.2	1.6	1.1	0.4	0.2	0.7
Puntarenas	45.0	33.8	15.8	2.5	1.7	0.2	0.3	0.9
Limón	48.6	28.4	14.9	2.8	3.1	0.3	0.4	1.5
Guanacaste	44.3	40.6	12.1	0.9	1.2	0.2	0.2	0.8
Total	38.6	31.1	26.2	1.7	1.1	0.4	0.3	0.9

Second round

Province	PUSC %	PLN %
San José	57.7	42.3
Alajuela	56.1	43.9
Cartago	55.6	44.4
Heredia	58.1	41.9
Puntarenas	59.7	40.3
Limón	67.0	33.0
Guanacaste	57.1	42.9
Total	58.0	42.0

Parliament

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Social Christian Unity Party	453,201	29.78	19	–8
	National Liberation Party	412,383	27.10	17	–6
	Citizens' Action Party	334,162	21.96	14	New
	Libertarian Movement	142,152	9.34	6	+5
	Costa Rican Renewal Party	54,699	3.59	1	0
	Democratic Force	30,172	1.98	0	–3
	National Integration Party	26,084	1.71	0	–1
	Coalition Change 2000	12,992	0.85	0	New
	Agrarian Labour Action Party	10,890	0.72	0	–1
	Independent Workers' Party	8,044	0.53	0	New
	National Patriotic Party	7,123	0.47	0	New
	Cartago Agrarian Union Party	6,974	0.46	0	0
	Christian National Alliance Party	6,825	0.45	0	New
	General Union Party	5,883	0.39	0	0
	National Rescue Party	4,937	0.32	0	0
	National Agrarian Party	2,595	0.17	0	New
	Cartago Agrarian Force Party	1,390	0.09	0	New
	National Convergence Party	1,348	0.09	0	0
Total		1,521,854	100.00	57	0
Valid votes		1,521,854	96.97
Invalid votes		28,461	1.81
Blank votes		19,023	1.21
Total votes		1,569,338	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		2,279,851	68.84
Source: Election Resources

By province

Province	PUSC		PLN		PAC		ML		PRC		FD		PIN		Other
	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S
San José	27.1	6	24.2	5	27.0	6	11.8	2	3.6	1	1.7	0	1.8	0	2.8	0
Alajuela	30.2	4	30.5	4	20.7	2	7.5	1	2.8	0	1.3	0	1.4	0	5.4	0
Cartago	25.7	2	25.4	2	20.8	2	7.3	1	2.0	0	3.7	0	4.5	0	10.4	0
Heredia	27.5	1	24.3	1	27.6	2	10.7	1	3.5	0	2.3	0	1.0	0	3.0	0
Puntarenas	37.8	2	29.8	1	12.9	1	10.0	1	4.2	0	1.8	0	0.4	0	3.2	0
Limón	37.3	2	26.2	2	12.7	1	8.1	1	5.6	0	2.7	0	0.8	0	9.4	0
Guanacaste	37.9	2	39.1	2	10.3	0	2.8	0	6.2	0	1.2	0	0.4	0	2.2	0
Total	29.8	19	27.1	17	22.0	14	9.3	6	3.6	1	2.0	0	1.7	0	4.6	0

See also

• 2002 Costa Rican municipal elections

References