1978 Costa Rican general election

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 5 February 1978.[1] Rodrigo Carazo Odio of the Unity Coalition won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 81%.[2]

1978 Costa Rican general election

← 1974 5 February 1978 1982 →
Presidential election
Turnout81.27% (Increase 1.35pp)
 
Nominee Rodrigo Carazo Luis Alberto Monge
Party CU PLN
Popular vote 419,824 364,285
Percentage 50.51% 43.83%

Results by canton

President before election

Daniel Oduber
PLN

Elected President

Rodrigo Carazo
CU

Legislative election

All 57 seats in the Legislative Assembly
29 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/–
CU Rodrigo Carazo Odio 43.41 27 New
PLN Luis Alberto Monge 38.86 25 −2
PU Rodrigo Gutiérrez Sáenz 7.66 3 New
FPC Rodolfo Cerdas Cruz 1.56 1 New
PUAC Martín Rolando Brenes 0.96 1 0
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Results by province

Carazo, a former congressman and former member of the National Liberation Party (probably Costa Rica's main political force), left the party several years before and created his own: Democratic Renovation, but a deeply split opposition on the 1974 election caused PLN's easy victory. With that in mind, main leaders of the non-Marxist opposition started talks in order to present a unified candidature.[3][4]

Eventually these talks came through and the main parties in the opposition at the right of the government achieved an agreement; going into a primary election to choose the common nominee. Rodrigo Carazo faced wealthy industrial Miguel Barzuna winning by small margin. Even when some leaders left the coalition after this (most notably Jorge Gonzalez Marten from the National Independent Party and former president Mario Echandi) most of the leadership remained united.[5] The Unity Coalition was created out of the joining of four parties: Carazo's Democratic Renovation, former president José Joaquín Trejos’ People's Union, Rafael Calderón Fournier (son of Calderonist leader Rafael Calderón Guardia) Republican Party and Dr. Jorge Arturo Monge's Christian Democratic Party (the smallest one of the coalition but the most ideologically coherent).[6]

The Left also made a coalition; the three main far-left parties at the Left of PLN; Popular Vanguard, Costa Rican Socialist Party and Revolutionary People's Movement made the United People coalition,[7] nominating former PLN member and doctor Rodrigo Gutierrez. Gutierrez had no possibilities to be president but the coalition did help the Left having a higher voting than usual and a large group in Congress. For many historians this election marks the beginning of Costa Rica's two-party system.[8]

Results

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President

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CandidatePartyVotes%
Rodrigo Carazo OdioUnity Coalition419,82450.51
Luis Alberto MongeNational Liberation Party364,28543.83
Rodrigo Alberto Gutiérrez Sáenz [es]United People22,7402.74
Guillermo Villalobos Arce [es]National Unification Party13,6661.64
Gerardo Villalobos GaritaIndependent Party [es]3,8220.46
Jorge González Martén [es]National Independent Party3,3230.40
Carlos Coronado VargasWorkers' Socialist Organization Party [es]1,8680.22
Rodrigo Cordero VíquezDemocratic Party1,6130.19
Total831,141100.00
Valid votes831,14196.62
Invalid votes23,6912.75
Blank votes5,3740.62
Total votes860,206100.00
Registered voters/turnout1,058,45581.27
Source: Election Resources

By province

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Province Carazo % Monge % Gutiérrez % Villalobos % Villalobos % González % Coronado % Cordero%
  San José 52.1 42.4 2.9 1.4 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.1
  Alajuela 50.6 45.7 1.6 1.2 0.4 0.3 0.1 0.1
  Cartago 47.1 47.3 2.0 1.9 0.6 0.6 0.2 0.3
  Heredia 51.2 44.2 2.9 0.9 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1
  Puntarenas 48.0 42.8 4.6 2.8 0.6 0.6 0.3 0.3
  Limón 49.9 38.3 5.9 3.7 0.7 0.7 0.4 0.4
  Guanacaste 49.3 46.2 1.4 1.7 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.3
Total 50.5 43.8 2.7 1.6 0.5 0.4 0.2 0.2

Parliament

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PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Unity Coalition356,21543.4127New
National Liberation Party318,90438.8625–2
United People62,8657.663New
National Unification Party25,8243.150–16
Costa Rican Peoples' Front12,8341.561+1
Republican Union Party8,2151.000New
Cartago Agrarian Union Party7,8870.9610
National Independent Party6,6730.810–6
Independent Party [es]5,7740.7000
Workers' Socialist Organization Party [es]4,0590.490New
Democratic Party3,0830.380–1
Authentic Limonense Party2,9540.360New
Costa Rican Concord Party2,5420.310New
Authentic Puntarenense Party1,7290.210New
National Labour Party1,0020.120New
Total820,560100.00570
Valid votes820,56095.43
Invalid votes25,7312.99
Blank votes13,5971.58
Total votes859,888100.00
Registered voters/turnout1,058,45581.24
Source: Election Resources

By province

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Province CU PLN PU PUN FPCR PUR PNI PI POST PD Others
% S % S % S % S % S % S % S % S % S % S % S
  San José 44.6 10 36.9 8 9.3 2 2.1 0 3.1 1 0.8 0 0.5 0 0.7 0 1.2 0 0.4 0 0.3 0
  Alajuela 46.2 5 42.8 5 4.2 0 4.3 0 - - 1.0 0 0.8 0 0.7 0 0.5 0 0.4 0 1.2 0
  Cartago 36.7 2 39.2 3 5.6 0 3.5 0 - - 1.9 0 1.3 0 1.1 0 - - 0.6 0 10.1 1
  Heredia 44.7 2 40.5 2 9.5 0 2.2 0 - - 0.5 0 0.7 0 0.7 0 - - 0.2 0 1.0 0
  Puntarenas 39.7 3 38.3 3 8.9 1 4.3 0 3.0 0 1.2 0 1.0 0 0.9 0 - - 0.4 0 2.3 0
  Limón 38.7 2 30.3 2 12.0 0 4.5 0 - - 2.1 0 3.2 0 0.9 0 - - 0.5 0 7.8 0
  Guanacaste 45.5 3 43.0 2 4.2 0 4.1 0 - - 1.3 0 0.7 0 0.6 0 - - 0.3 0 0.2 0
Total 43.4 27 38.9 25 7.7 3 3.1 0 1.6 1 1.0 0 0.8 0 0.7 0 0.4 0 0.4 0 2.0 0

Local governments

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PartyVotes%Seats
Alderpeople+/–Municipal
syndics
+/–
Unity Coalition365,90244.62230New228New
National Liberation Party328,00940.00213–12177–173
United People52,7076.4323New0New
National Unification Party29,5983.614–1460–37
Costa Rican Peoples' Front10,1531.241+100
Republican Union Party10,0051.220New0New
National Independent Party7,6230.930–480–2
Independent Party [es]3,7260.451+11+1
Democratic Party of the People2,2540.270New0New
Authentic Puntarenense Party2,2070.271New0New
Desamparadenean Alliance Party2,0620.251New0New
Authentic Limonense Party2,0080.241New0New
Costa Rican Concord Party1,7050.210New0New
Worker-Peasant Party1,1040.131New0New
Democratic Party5680.070000
Workers' Socialist Organization Party [es]4610.060New0New
Total820,092100.00476+9406+16
Valid votes820,09295.36
Invalid/blank votes39,9094.64
Total votes860,001100.00
Registered voters/turnout1,058,44581.25
Source: TSE[9]

References

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  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p 155 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
  2. ^ Nohlen, p 157
  3. ^ Casas-Zamora, Kevin (2005). Paying for Democracy: Political Finance and State Funding for Parties. ECPR Press. ISBN 978-0-9547966-3-1.[page needed]
  4. ^ "Elections and Events 1948-1986 1948". The Library. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  5. ^ Lentz, Harris M. (4 February 2014). Heads of States and Governments Since 1945. Routledge. ISBN 9781134264902. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  6. ^ Lehoucq, Fabrice (27 August 2012). The Politics of Modern Central America. ISBN 9780521515061. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  7. ^ Ameringer, Charles D. (1992). Political Parties of the Americas, 1980s to 1990s. ISBN 9780313274183. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  8. ^ White, Stephen; Webb, Paul (20 September 2007). Party Politics in New Democracies. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199289653. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  9. ^ "Elecciones Regidurías 1978". tse.go.cr (in Spanish). Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones. Retrieved 21 May 2020.