1998 Costa Rican general election

1 February 1998

Presidential election

Candidate Miguel Ángel Rodríguez José Miguel Corrales Bolaños Party PUSC PLN Popular vote 652,160 618,834 Percentage 46.96% 44.56%

Results by canton

President before election José María Figueres PLN Elected President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez PUSC

Parliamentary election

Party Leader % Seats +/– PUSC Miguel Ángel Rodríguez 41.18 27 +2 PLN José Miguel Corrales Bolaños 34.83 23 −5 PFD Vladimir de la Cruz 5.77 3 +1 PML Federico Malavassi Calvo 3.08 1 New PIN Walter Muñoz Céspedes 2.78 1 New PRC Justo Orozco 2.02 1 New PALA Guido Octavio Vargas Artavia 1.23 1 +1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

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General elections were held in Costa Rica on 1 February 1998.^[1] Miguel Ángel Rodríguez of the Social Christian Unity Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 70%, the lowest since the 1950s.^[2]

An economic recession, a teachers' strike due to a pensions' reform and some corruption scandals made President José María Figueres' government highly unpopular. Thus, government endorsed candidate José Miguel Corrales tried to distance himself from Figueres as much as possible. Corrales won over former President of Congress Jorge Walter Coto Molina in PLN's primaries but the discovery of Voter fraud damaged PLN's image and split the party.^[3] On the contrary in PUSC, previous candidate Miguel Ángel Rodríguez was seen as the natural nominee for this election, and despite the fact that deputy Luis Fishman was rumored as a possible internal opponent, he finally declined and Rodríguez was nominated without the need of primaries, thus keeping the party united. During Figueres' administration the so call Figueres-Calderón Pact was signed between the leaders of the two main parties (and sons of the two caudillos of the 1948 civil war); him and Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier (Rodríguez political rival) to approve several mutually beneficial laws for both major parties, something that caused outrage among large segments of the population and started the downfall of the two-party system.^[4]

Results

By province

Province	Rodríguez %	Corrales %	de la Cruz %	Muñoz %	Thomas %	González %	Malavassi %	Other %
San José	42.94	46.72	3.33	2.16	1.81	1.15	0.58	1.31
Alajuela	46.86	45.67	3.13	0.96	1.21	0.92	0.30	0.95
Cartago	44.35	47.69	3.16	1.37	0.81	0.99	0.29	1.34
Heredia	43.39	46.35	3.45	1.63	2.12	1.41	0.35	1.30
Guanacaste	55.63	40.61	1.76	0.30	0.58	0.14	0.15	0.83
Puntarenas	56.23	38.57	1.88	0.47	0.52	0.26	0.40	1.67
Limón	59.58	32.18	2.62	0.88	1.51	0.63	0.54	2.06
Total	46.96	44.56	3.00	1.44	1.39	0.93	0.42	1.30

Parliament

The country was for the time still under a heavy two-party system dynamics^[5][6][7] and the two main parties at the time; National Liberation Party and Social Christian Unity Party won most of the votes. Nevertheless, some third forces also won seats on the Parliament, among them left-wing Democratic Force won two seats. It was also the first time that liberal Libertarian Movement and Christian conservative^[8] Costa Rican Renewal won seats (one each) in the Parliament both for their future presidential candidates Otto Guevara and Justo Orozco respectively. The small party National Integration Party led by medic Walter Muñoz won its only seat in history until the 2018 election.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Social Christian Unity Party	569,792	41.18	27	+2
	National Liberation Party	481,933	34.83	23	–5
	Democratic Force	79,826	5.77	3	+1
	Libertarian Movement	42,640	3.08	1	New
	National Integration Party	38,408	2.78	1	New
	Costa Rican Renewal Party	27,892	2.02	1	New
	Democratic Party	17,060	1.23	0	New
	Agrarian Labour Action Party	16,955	1.23	1	+1
	United People	15,028	1.09	0	0
	National Independent Party	12,794	0.92	0	0
	General Union Party	12,583	0.91	0	0
	New Democratic Party	12,476	0.90	0	New
	National Rescue Party	9,588	0.69	0	New
	Christian National Alliance Party	9,176	0.66	0	0
	National Agrarian Party	7,497	0.54	0	–1
	Cartago Agrarian Union Party	7,138	0.52	0	–1
	Alajuelense Democratic Action	6,614	0.48	0	0
	Independent Party	6,025	0.44	0	0
	Change Now	2,223	0.16	0	New
	National Convergence Party	2,197	0.16	0	0
	Authentic Limonense Party	2,167	0.16	0	0
	Cartago Agrarian Force Party	1,892	0.14	0	New
	Independent Guanacaste Party	1,623	0.12	0	0
Total		1,383,527	100.00	57	0
Valid votes		1,383,527	96.71
Invalid votes		32,709	2.29
Blank votes		14,343	1.00
Total votes		1,430,579	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		2,045,980	69.92
Source: Election Resources

By province

Province	PUSC		PLN		FD		ML		PIN		PRC		PD		PU		Others
	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S
San José	37.60	8	36.21	8	7.31	2	4.64	1	4.69	1	2.44	1	1.60	0	0.88	0	4.63	0
Alajuela	40.89	4	35.52	4	5.20	1	1.40	0	1.30	0	1.38	0	1.08	0	0.41	0	12.82	1
Cartago	39.39	3	36.49	3	5.14	0	1.71	0	2.08	0	0.97	0	1.15	0	1.75	0	11.32	0
Heredia	39.20	3	35.85	2	7.12	0	2.45	0	3.22	0	2.48	0	1.76	0	1.12	0	6.80	0
Guanacaste	50.05	3	33.66	2	4.19	0	1.08	0	0.55	0	3.10	0	0.21	0	0.62	0	6.54	0
Puntarenas	50.50	4	32.42	2	3.05	0	3.95	0	0.97	0	1.16	0	0.70	0	1.60	0	5.65	0
Limón	47.71	2	24.30	2	2.70	0	3.29	0	1.11	0	2.49	0	0.74	0	2.88	0	14.78	0
Total	41.18	27	34.83	23	5.77	3	3.08	1	2.78	1	2.02	1	1.23	0	1.09	0	8.02	1

References