The 2005 National Election Results in Costa Rica

Abstract

The article describes the closely fought national election campaign in Costa Rica in 2005. The author describes the role of the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) and the unprecedented fact that only 88.8 percent of polling stations reported their results to the TSE electronically and that in the results that were reported electronically to the TSE, there was a difference of only 0.3 percent (3,250) votes between the National Liberal Party (PLN) and the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC). This led to a manual count, giving the PLN a 16,000-vote lead, which the Citizen Action Party (PAC) refused to accept. During the counting period, the PAC presented 695 annulment requests to the TSE, and demanded that the votes of the first 703 polling stations-those which had failed to send in their count by electronic mail-should be recounted. In the end, the TSE rejected the challenges posed by the PAC, and officially declared Oscar Arias Sanchez president-elect on March 7. The author explains how public opinion polls also played a particularly relevant role in this campaign, because all the polls undertaken from the beginning of 2005 predicted a wide margin for the PLN candidate. He also observes that the high rate of abstention was notable, as was the key role played by civil-society organizations, which were clearly in favor of the PAC and acted to the detriment of the PLN.