2014 Costa Rican general election
# 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

There were thirteen political parties on the 2014 ballot, each one with their corresponding ticket of a president and two vice-presidents.

| Party | President | First Vicepresident | Second Vicepresident |
| - | - | - | - |
| Citizens' Action Party | Luis Guillermo Solís Foreign Ministry's Chief of Staff (1986-1990), Ambassador of Central American Affairs (1994-1998) | Helio Fallas Minister of Planning (1990-1994), Minister of Housing (2002-2006) | Ana Helena Chacón Vice Minister of Public Safety (2002-2006), Deputy (2006-2010) |
| National Liberation Party | Johnny Araya San José Mayor (1998- ) | Jorge Pattoni General Manager Dos Pino's Corporation (1992-2013) | Silvia Lara President of Joint Social Welfare Institute (2002-2006) |
| Broad Front | José María Villalta Florez-Estrada Deputy (2010–2014) | María Dagmare Facio Fernández | Walter Antillón Montealegre |
| Libertarian Movement | Otto Guevara Deputy (1998–2002) | Thelmo Vargas Madrigal | Abriel Gordienko López |
| Social Christian Unity Party | Rodolfo Emilio Piza de Rocafort Executive President of Costa Rican Department of Social Security (1998–2002) | Carlos Eduardo Araya Guillén | Patricia Vega Herrera |
| New Homeland Party | José Miguel Corrales Bolaños Deputy (2002–2006) | Lizbeth Dora Quesada Tristán | Óscar Aguilar Bulgarelli |
| National Restoration Party | Carlos Luis Avendaño Calvo | Rose Mary Zúñiga Ramírez | Pablo Josué Chaves Illanes |
| Costa Rican Renewal Party | Justo Orozco Álvarez | Ana Dinorah Rodríguez Rojas | Rafael Ángel Matamoros Mesén |
| Accessibility without Exclusion (PASE) | Óscar Andrés López Arias | Zulema Villalta Bolaños | Marvin Alberto Marín Zúñiga |
| New Generation Party | Sergio Mena Díaz | Luz Mary Alpízar Loaiza | Carlos Francisco Moreno Bustos |
| Workers' Party (PT) | Héctor Enrique Monestel Herrera | Jessica Barquero Barrantes | Greivis González López |
| National Advance Party | José Manuel Echandi Meza | Carmen Lidia Pérez Ramírez | Gabriel Zamora Márquez |
| National Integration Party | Walter Muñoz Céspedes | Vivian González Trejos | Rodrigo Arguedas Cortés |

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

| Candidate | Candidate | Party | First round | First round | Second round | Second round |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Candidate | Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Votes | % |
| | Luis Guillermo Solís | Citizens' Action Party | 629,866 | 30.64 | 1,338,321 | 77.77 |
| | Johnny Araya Monge | National Liberation Party | 610,634 | 29.71 | 382,600 | 22.23 |
| | José María Villalta Florez-Estrada | Broad Front | 354,479 | 17.25 | | |
| | Otto Guevara | Libertarian Movement | 233,064 | 11.34 | | |
| | Rodolfo Piza Rocafort | Social Christian Unity Party | 123,653 | 6.02 | | |
| | José Miguel Corrales Bolaños | New Fatherland Party | 30,816 | 1.50 | | |
| | Carlos Avendaño | National Restoration Party | 27,691 | 1.35 | | |
| | Justo Orozco | Costa Rican Renewal Party | 16,721 | 0.81 | | |
| | Óscar López | Accessibility without Exclusion | 10,339 | 0.50 | | |
| | Sergio Mena | New Generation Party | 5,882 | 0.29 | | |
| | Héctor Monestel | Workers' Party | 4,897 | 0.24 | | |
| | José Echand | National Advance Party | 4,388 | 0.21 | | |
| | Walter Muñoz | National Integration Party | 3,042 | 0.15 | | |
| Total | Total | Total | 2,055,472 | 100.00 | 1,720,921 | 100.00 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | Valid votes | 2,055,472 | 97.92 | 1,720,921 | 98.95 |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 43,747 | 2.08 | 18,314 | 1.05 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 2,099,219 | 100.00 | 1,739,235 | 100.00 |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 3,065,667 | 68.48 | 3,078,321 | 56.50 |
| Source: Election Resources |||||||

**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, 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 achieved such a big number. Social Christian Unity Party recovered part of its former influence by turning into the fourth political party in legislative size even when its candidate Rodolfo Piza was fifth in the presidential vote. The opposite happened to Otto Guevara’s right-wing Libertarian Movement, fourth in presidential votes, which stood fifth in legislative elections, and as a result, the number of its deputies was reduced from 9 to 4. Oscar Lopez’s PASE party also suffered a diminishment in number of deputies from 4 to 1 (Lopez himself).

Three Christian parties, oriented toward the Protestant minority and very socially conservative, also achieved deputies: Costa Rican Renewal Party 2, National Restoration 1 and Christian Democratic Alliance 1.

| | National Liberation Party | 526,531 | 25.71 | 18 | –6 |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | Citizens' Action Party | 480,969 | 23.48 | 13 | +2 |
| | Broad Front | 269,178 | 13.14 | 9 | +8 |
| | Social Christian Unity Party | 205,247 | 10.02 | 8 | +2 |
| | Libertarian Movement | 162,559 | 7.94 | 4 | –5 |
| | National Restoration Party | 84,265 | 4.11 | 1 | 0 |
| | Costa Rican Renewal Party | 83,083 | 4.06 | 2 | +1 |
| | Accessibility without Exclusion | 81,291 | 3.97 | 1 | –3 |
| | New Fatherland Party | 42,234 | 2.06 | 0 | New |
| | New Generation Party | 25,060 | 1.22 | 0 | New |
| | Christian Democratic Alliance | 23,886 | 1.17 | 1 | New |
| | National Advance Party | 19,895 | 0.97 | 0 | New |
| | Workers' Party | 12,998 | 0.63 | 0 | 0 |
| | National Integration Party | 11,307 | 0.55 | 0 | 0 |
| | Transporters' Party | 5,639 | 0.28 | 0 | New |
| | Patriotic Alliance | 4,853 | 0.24 | 0 | 0 |
| | Viva Puntarenas Party | 4,417 | 0.22 | 0 | New |
| | Green Party | 2,148 | 0.10 | 0 | New |
| | Homel, Equality and Dem. Party of Puntarenas | 1,376 | 0.07 | 0 | New |
| | Homeland, Equality and Democracy Party | 1,088 | 0.05 | 0 | New |
| | New Socialist Party | 277 | 0.01 | 0 | New |
| Total | Total | 2,048,301 | 100.00 | 57 | 0 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 2,048,301 | 97.72 | | |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 47,854 | 2.28 | | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 2,096,155 | 100.00 | | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 3,065,667 | 68.38 | | |
| Source: Election Resources ||||||

**By province**

| Province | PLN | PLN | PAC | PAC | FA | FA | PUSC | PUSC | ML | ML | PREN | PREN | PRC | PRC | PASE | PASE | PPN | PPN | PNG | PNG | Other | Other |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Province | % | 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 | 2 | 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. The full list is as follows:

| Province | Cédula | Candidate | Party |
| - | - | - | - |
| San José | 104300205 | Ottón Solís Fallas | PAC |
| San José | 106070983 | Epsy Campbell Barr | PAC |
| San José | 104990698 | Víctor Hugo Morales Zapata | PAC |
| San José | 108460152 | Marcela Guerrero Campos | PAC |
| San José | 601780481 | Ruperto Marvin Atencio Delgado | PAC |
| San José | 104890842 | Antonio Álvarez Desanti | PLN |
| San José | 103570156 | Sara Ángela Piszk Feinzilber | PLN |
| San José | 400850902 | Carlos Manuel Arguedas Ramírez | PLN |
| San José | 700490709 | Maureen Cecilia Clarke Clarke | PLN |
| San José | 202751177 | Juan Luis Jiménez Succar | PLN |
| San José | 104710261 | Ana Patricia Mora Castellanos | FA |
| San José | 104110109 | Jorge Arturo Arguedas Mora | FA |
| San José | 105270922 | Humberto Vargas Corrales | PUSC |
| San José | 106730022 | Rosibel Ramos Madrigal | PUSC |
| San José | 105440893 | Otto Guevara Guth | PML |
| San José | 112260846 | Natalia Díaz Quintana | PML |
| San José | 108820284 | Gerardo Fabricio Alvarado Muñoz | PRN |
| San José | 107890915 | Óscar Andrés López Arias | PASE |
| San José | 108910592 | Gonzalo Alberto Ramírez Zamora | PRC |
| Alajuela | 202740540 | Rolando González Ulloa | PLN |
| Alajuela | 202700539 | Aracelli Segura Retana | PLN |
| Alajuela | 109780035 | Michael Jake Arce Sancho | PLN |
| Alajuela | 206470280 | Silvia Vanessa Sánchez Venegas | PLN |
| Alajuela | 204060127 | Javier Francisco Cambronero Arguedas | PAC |
| Alajuela | 900500822 | Nidia María Jiménez Vásquez | PAC |
| Alajuela | 110350156 | Franklin Corella Vargas | PAC |
| Alajuela | 204830663 | Edgardo Vinicio Araya Sibaja | FA |
| Alajuela | 203440441 | Ligia Elena Fallas Rodríguez | FA |
| Alajuela | 104410073 | Rafael Ángel Ortiz Fábrega | PUSC |
| Alajuela | 106730801 | José Alberto Alfaro Jiménez | PML |
| Cartago | 302880372 | Paulina María Ramírez Portuguez | PLN |
| Cartago | 302350106 | Julio Antonio Rojas Astorga | PLN |
| Cartago | 104110201 | Emilia Molina Cruz | PAC |
| Cartago | 106670558 | Marco Vinicio Redondo Quirós | PAC |
| Cartago | 302990664 | José Francisco Camacho Leiva | FA |
| Cartago | 301940611 | Jorge Rodríguez Araya | PUSC |
| Cartago | 105890526 | Mario Redondo Poveda | ADC |
| Heredia | 105120548 | Henry Mora Jiménez | PAC |
| Heredia | 204740785 | Marlene Madrigal Flores | PAC |
| Heredia | 108490121 | Rony Monge Salas | PLN |
| Heredia | 401300696 | Lorelly Trejos Salas | PLN |
| Heredia | 401470385 | José Antonio Ramírez Aguilar | FA |
| Heredia | 401300350 | William Alvarado Bogantes | PUSC |
| Guanacaste | 106070406 | Juan Rafael Marín Quirós | PLN |
| Guanacaste | 501880832 | Marta Arabela Arauz Mora | PLN |
| Guanacaste | 204240362 | Ronal Vargas Araya | FA |
| Guanacaste | 502950673 | Johnny Leiva Badilla | PUSC |
| Puntarenas | 503090116 | Karla Vanessa Prendas Matarrita | PLN |
| Puntarenas | 202820663 | Olivier Ibo Jiménez Rojas | PLN |
| Puntarenas | 110230742 | Gerardo Vargas Rojas | PUSC |
| Puntarenas | 502560320 | Carlos Enrique Hernández Álvarez | FA |
| Puntarenas | 104160452 | Laura María Garro Sánchez | PAC |
| Limón | 900840835 | Danny Hayling Carcache | PLN |
| Limón | 302420343 | Gerardo Vargas Varela | FA |
| Limón | 502170327 | Abelino Esquivel Quesada | PRC |
| Limón | 107880624 | Luis Alberto Vásquez Castro | PUSC |
| Limón | 303050502 | Carmen Quesada Santamaría | PML |
