# 2002 Costa Rican general election

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 3 February 2002. For the first time in the country's history, no candidate in the presidential election passed the 40% threshold. 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.
Many analysts consider this election the beginning of the end of Costa Rica's decades-long two party system. 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).
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. Right-wing Libertarian Movement also increases its representation from one to six deputies while conservative Costa Rican Renewal Party won one seat as usual.
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.

## 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. 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.

## Results
### President

| Candidate | Candidate | Party | First round | First round | Second round | Second round |
| Candidate | Candidate | Party | 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 [es] | National Integration Party | 6,235 | 0.41 | | |
| | Vladimir de la Cruz [es] | Democratic Force | 4,121 | 0.27 | | |
| | Jorge Walter Coto Molina [es] | Coalition Change 2000 | 3,970 | 0.26 | | |
| | Rolando Angulo Zeledón | General Union Party [es] | 2,655 | 0.17 | | |
| | Daniel Reynolds Vargas | National Patriotic Party [es] | 1,680 | 0.11 | | |
| | Marvin Calvo Montoya | Christian National Alliance Party [es] | 1,271 | 0.08 | | |
| | José Hine García [es] | National Rescue Party | 905 | 0.06 | | |
| | Pablo Galo Angulo Casasola | Independent Workers' Party [es] | 801 | 0.05 | | |
| Total | Total | Total | 1,529,845 | 100.00 | 1,339,480 | 100.00 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | Valid votes | 1,529,845 | 97.48 | 1,339,480 | 97.56 |
| Invalid votes | Invalid votes | Invalid votes | 32,332 | 2.06 | 27,457 | 2.00 |
| Blank votes | Blank votes | Blank votes | 7,241 | 0.46 | 6,006 | 0.44 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 1,569,418 | 100.00 | 1,372,943 | 100.00 |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 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

| | 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 [es] | 8,044 | 0.53 | 0 | New |
| | National Patriotic Party [es] | 7,123 | 0.47 | 0 | New |
| | Cartago Agrarian Union Party | 6,974 | 0.46 | 0 | 0 |
| | Christian National Alliance Party [es] | 6,825 | 0.45 | 0 | New |
| | General Union Party [es] | 5,883 | 0.39 | 0 | 0 |
| | National Rescue Party | 4,937 | 0.32 | 0 | 0 |
| | National Agrarian Party [es] | 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 | Total | 1,521,854 | 100.00 | 57 | 0 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 1,521,854 | 96.97 | | |
| Invalid votes | Invalid votes | 28,461 | 1.81 | | |
| Blank votes | Blank votes | 19,023 | 1.21 | | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 1,569,338 | 100.00 | | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 2,279,851 | 68.84 | | |
| Source: Election Resources ||||||

#### By province

| Province | PUSC | PUSC | PLN | PLN | PAC | PAC | ML | ML | PRC | PRC | FD | FD | PIN | PIN | Other | Other |
| Province | % | 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 |