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. In accordance with Article 132 of the constitution, incumbent President Laura Chinchilla Miranda was ineligible to run for a second consecutive term.
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. 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.
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.
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. Ultimately, Solís won the second round with 78 percent of the vote, a historic high in Costa Rica. Unlike the first round, Solís won a majority in every province.

Presidential candidates

Other presidential candidates

Minor candidates

Less than 2% of popular support:
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.
DatePollster
Johnny Araya

Otto Guevara

Rodolfo Piza


L.G. Solís

J.M. Villalta

Others
Aug 2013Borge y Asociados52%9.7%23%8.2%3.5%-
Aug 2013CIEP20.2%1.4%12.4%4.1%4.5%-
Sep 2013Unimer27.5%9.7%10.6%4.4%19%26%
Oct 2013CIEP24%9.9%3%4%9.7%1.3%
Nov 2013Borge y Asociados26%16%4%4%19%26%
Nov 2013Cid Gallup45%15%8%10%21%
Dec 2013Unimer19%19%5%8%22%11%
Dec 2013CIEP17%10%3%5%15%1%
Dec 2013Cid Gallup37%15%5%9%32%-
14 Jan 2014Cid Gallup39%18%5%7%26%-
16 Jan 2014Unimer20.3%20.2%3.6%5.4%22.2%5.8%
21 Jan 2014CIEP20.4%11.2%3.1%9.5%15.3%4.6%
28 Jan 2014Cid Gallup35.6%17.6%6.5%15.6%21%3.8%
28 Jan 2014CIEP17.4%7.3%3.4%11.6%14.4%-

Results

President

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

By province

First round
Province %PAC %PLN %FA %ML %PUSC %PPN %PREN %Other %
Province %
36.228.515.210.05.31.41.41.9
31.129.818.310.45.42.11.11.8
34.827.814.711.46.32.10.91.9
38.625.816.59.81.21.21.65.3
14.134.423.214.68.50.72.02.6
14.629.222.218.17.70.81.95.6
14.940.819.112.87.80.91.32.5
Total30.629.717.311.36.11.51.42.2

Second round
ProvincePAC %PLN %-
Province-
Province77.622.3
78.921.1-
80.319.6-
80.819.1-
73.126.8-
77.522.4-
69.730.2-
Total77.822.1-

Legislative Assembly

Although Solís' PAC received the most votes in the presidential elections, the party did not won in the parliamentary voting making PLN the largest party in the Assembly with 18 deputies over PAC's 13.
Leftist party Broad Front surprised with its results, achieving 9 seats, first time ever that the Left achieves such a big number. Social Christian Unity Party recover part of its former influence turning into the fourth political party in legislative size even when its candidate Rodolfo Piza was the fifth in presidential vote. The opposite happened to Otto Guevara’s right-wing Libertarian Movement, fourth in presidential votes but fifth in legislative and reducing drastically it number of deputies from 9 to 4. Oscar Lopez’s PASE party also suffer a diminishment in deputies from 4 to 1.
Three Christian parties oriented toward the Protestant minority and very socially conservative also achieve deputies; Costa Rican Renewal Party 2, National Restoration 1 and Christian Democratic Alliance 1.

By province

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. The full list is as follows:
ProvinceCédulaCandidateParty
104300205Ottón 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
202740540Rolando 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
302880372Paulina María Ramírez PortuguezPLN
Cartago302350106Julio Antonio Rojas AstorgaPLN
Cartago104110201Emilia Molina CruzPAC
Cartago106670558Marco Vinicio Redondo QuirósPAC
Cartago302990664José Francisco Camacho LeivaFA
Cartago301940611Jorge Rodríguez ArayaPUSC
Cartago105890526Mario Redondo PovedaADC
105120548Henry Mora JiménezPAC
Heredia204740785Marlene Madrigal FloresPAC
Heredia108490121Rony Monge SalasPLN
Heredia401300696Lorelly Trejos SalasPLN
Heredia401470385José Antonio Ramírez AguilarFA
Heredia401300350William Alvarado BogantesPUSC
106070406Juan Rafael Marín QuirósPLN
Guanacaste501880832Marta Arabela Arauz MoraPLN
Guanacaste204240362Ronal Vargas ArayaFA
Guanacaste502950673Johnny Leiva BadillaPUSC
503090116Karla Vanessa Prendas MatarritaPLN
Puntarenas202820663Olivier Ibo Jiménez RojasPLN
Puntarenas110230742Gerardo Vargas RojasPUSC
Puntarenas502560320Carlos Enrique Hernández ÁlvarezFA
Puntarenas104160452Laura María Garro SánchezPAC
900840835Danny Hayling CarcachePLN
Limón302420343Gerardo Vargas VarelaFA
Limón502170327Abelino Esquivel QuesadaPRC
Limón107880624Luis Alberto Vásquez CastroPUSC
Limón303050502Carmen Quesada SantamaríaPML