# 1982 Costa Rican general election

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 7 February 1982. Luis Alberto Monge of the National Liberation Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 79%.
Affected by a deep economic crisis and tensions with Somoza's Nicaragua due to Rodrigo Carazo's support of the FSLN, Carazo's government suffered from extremely low popularity. This naturally affected the Unity Coalition (Carazo's party) and its candidate Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier giving to PLN and its candidate trade union leader and farmer Luis Alberto Monge a landslide victory and the party's biggest parliamentary group in its history (33 deputies). Nevertheless, Unity remained as the second most voted party in the election as Calderón was able to attract the traditional and very loyal Calderonista vote. The crisis was also beneficial for the Left as it achieved a historical high voting and four seats in Parliament (the biggest group since 1948) with Dr. Rodrigo Gutiérrez repeating candidacy from United People. Another candidate was former president Mario Echandi by the conservative and anti-Communist National Movement, but Echandi's candidacy was testimonial receiving almost as many votes as Gutierrez (3% each), according to some due to his incapacity to understand modern times when personal wealth and family origin was not enough to win an election.

## Results
### President

| Candidate | Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
| | Luis Alberto Monge | National Liberation Party | 568,374 | 58.80 |
| | Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier | Unity Coalition | 325,187 | 33.64 |
| | Mario Echandi Jiménez | National Movement [es] | 37,127 | 3.84 |
| | Rodrigo Alberto Gutiérrez Sáenz [es] | United People | 32,186 | 3.33 |
| | Edwin Chacón Madrigal | Independent Party [es] | 1,955 | 0.20 |
| | Edwin Retana Chaves | Democratic Party | 1,747 | 0.18 |
| Total | Total | Total | 966,576 | 100.00 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | Valid votes | 966,576 | 97.47 |
| Invalid votes | Invalid votes | Invalid votes | 20,241 | 2.04 |
| Blank votes | Blank votes | Blank votes | 4,862 | 0.49 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 991,679 | 100.00 |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 1,261,127 | 78.63 |
| Source: Election Resources |||||

#### By province

| Province | Monge % | Calderón % | Echandi % | Gutiérrez % | Chacón % | Retana % |
| San José | 58.4 | 32.5 | 5.3 | 3.5 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| Alajuela | 59.5 | 35.5 | 2.8 | 2.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Cartago | 61.9 | 32.8 | 2.7 | 2.1 | 0.3 | 0.2 |
| Heredia | 57.0 | 36.3 | 2.6 | 3.7 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| Puntarenas | 58.3 | 32.8 | 3.3 | 5.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Limón | 53.9 | 33.8 | 3.6 | 7.8 | 0.6 | 0.4 |
| Guanacaste | 60.7 | 34.6 | 2.4 | 1.8 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Total | 58.8 | 33.6 | 3.8 | 3.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 |

### Parliament

| | National Liberation Party | 527,231 | 55.15 | 33 | +8 |
| | Unity Coalition | 277,998 | 29.08 | 18 | –9 |
| | United People | 61,465 | 6.43 | 4 | +1 |
| | National Movement [es] | 34,437 | 3.60 | 1 | New |
| | Alajuelense Democratic Action | 12,486 | 1.31 | 1 | New |
| | National Democratic Party | 11,575 | 1.21 | 0 | New |
| | Cartago Agrarian Union Party | 7,235 | 0.76 | 0 | –1 |
| | Costa Rican Concord Party | 5,014 | 0.52 | 0 | 0 |
| | Independent Party [es] | 4,671 | 0.49 | 0 | 0 |
| | Authentic Limonense Party | 3,893 | 0.41 | 0 | 0 |
| | Peoples' Action Party | 3,546 | 0.37 | 0 | New |
| | Democratic Party | 2,672 | 0.28 | 0 | 0 |
| | Cartago Parliamentary Union Party | 1,047 | 0.11 | 0 | New |
| | Authentic Puntarenense Party | 1,036 | 0.11 | 0 | 0 |
| | Worker-Peasant Party | 976 | 0.10 | 0 | New |
| | National Liberal Progressive Republican Party | 708 | 0.07 | 0 | New |
| Total | Total | 955,990 | 100.00 | 57 | 0 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 955,990 | 96.41 | | |
| Invalid votes | Invalid votes | 24,560 | 2.48 | | |
| Blank votes | Blank votes | 11,016 | 1.11 | | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 991,566 | 100.00 | | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 1,261,127 | 78.63 | | |
| Source: Election Resources ||||||

#### By province

| Province | PLN | PLN | CU | CU | PU | PU | MN | MN | PND | PND | PI | PI | PD | PD | Others | Others |
| Province | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S |
| San José | 55.1 | 12 | 28.5 | 6 | 7.2 | 2 | 4.7 | 1 | 1.5 | 0 | 0.4 | 0 | 0.3 | 0 | 2.3 | 0 |
| Alajuela | 55.5 | 6 | 30.1 | 3 | 3.3 | 0 | 2.4 | 0 | 0.7 | 0 | 0.4 | 0 | 0.2 | 0 | 7.4 | 1 |
| Cartago | 57.2 | 4 | 25.5 | 2 | 3.8 | 0 | 2.2 | 0 | 0.6 | 0 | 1.2 | 0 | 0.3 | 0 | 9.2 | 0 |
| Heredia | 54.0 | 3 | 32.4 | 2 | 8.3 | 0 | 3.5 | 0 | 1.1 | 0 | 0.4 | 0 | 0.2 | 0 | - | - |
| Puntarenas | 55.7 | 3 | 28.6 | 2 | 8.6 | 1 | 3.2 | 0 | 2.0 | 0 | 0.3 | 0 | 0.4 | 0 | 1.2 | 0 |
| Limón | 43.5 | 2 | 27.0 | 1 | 14.2 | 1 | 3.4 | 0 | 1.8 | 0 | 1.4 | 0 | 0.4 | 0 | 8.4 | 0 |
| Guanacaste | 59.4 | 3 | 32.8 | 2 | 3.9 | 0 | 3.1 | 0 | 0.6 | 0 | - | - | 0.2 | - | - | - |
| Total | 55.2 | 33 | 29.1 | 18 | 6.4 | 4 | 3.6 | 1 | 1.2 | 0 | 0.5 | 0 | 0.3 | 0 | 3.7 | 0 |

### Local governments

| Party | Party | Votes | % | Seats | Seats | Seats | Seats |
| Party | Party | Votes | % | Alderpeople | +/– | Municipal syndics | +/– |
| | National Liberation Party | 535,478 | 55.91 | 299 | +86 | 403 | +226 |
| | Unity Coalition | 287,825 | 30.05 | 164 | –66 | 11 | –217 |
| | United People | 59,161 | 6.18 | 21 | –2 | 0 | 0 |
| | National Movement [es] | 40,079 | 4.19 | 4 | New | 0 | New |
| | National Democratic Party | 9,455 | 0.99 | 2 | New | 0 | New |
| | Alajuelense Democratic Action | 9,359 | 0.98 | 2 | New | 0 | New |
| | Peoples' Action Party | 4,762 | 0.50 | 0 | New | 0 | New |
| | Independent Party [es] | 3,514 | 0.37 | 0 | –1 | 0 | –1 |
| | General Union Party [es] | 1,852 | 0.19 | 1 | New | 0 | New |
| | Authentic Limonense Party | 1,763 | 0.18 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | Worker-Peasant Party | 1,463 | 0.15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | New Alajuelita Party | 1,073 | 0.11 | 1 | New | 0 | New |
| | Authentic Puntarenense Party | 722 | 0.08 | 0 | –1 | 0 | 0 |
| | Cartago Agrarian Union Party | 695 | 0.07 | 0 | New | 0 | New |
| | Democratic Party | 475 | 0.05 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | Total | 957,676 | 100.00 | 496 | +19 | 414 | +8 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 957,676 | 96.58 | | | | |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 33,869 | 3.42 | | | | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 991,545 | 100.00 | | | | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 1,269,676 | 78.09 | | | | |
| Source: TSE ||||||||