General Information
Note: Parties that won 0 seats are excluded from results.
At stake in this election:
- All 57 seats in the Legislative Assembly (Asamblea Legislativa) [1]*
*Note: this election is being held concurrently with the Costa Rican Presidential election.
Description of government structure [2]:
- Chief of State: President Carlos ALVARADO Quesada (since 8 May 2018)*.
- Assembly: The unicameral Legislative Assembly (Asamblea Legislativa).
*Note: The President is both the chief of state and head of government. There is also a First Vice President and Second Vice President elected on the same ballot as the president.
Description of electoral system [3]:
- The president and vice presidents are directly on the same ballot by modified majority popular vote (40% threshold) for a 4-year term.
- The Legislative Assembly has 57 seats and is directly elected in multi-seat constituencies corresponding to the country’s 7 provinces. Members serve 4-year terms.
Last Election [4]:
- The last Legislative Assembly election was held on February 4th, 2018. 2,137,556 votes were cast. The National Liberation Party won 17 seats (19.49% of the vote), National Restoration won 14 seats (18.15% of the vote), and Citizens Action Party won 10 seats (16.27% of the vote). All other parties won less than 5% of the vote.
Main parties in this election:
- National Liberation Party (PLN) / Partido Liberación Nacional
- Leader: Jorge Pattoni SAENZ
- Seats won in last election: 17 out of 57
- Citizens’ Action Party (PAC) / Partido Acción Ciudadana
- Leader: Carlos Alvarado QUESADA
- Seats won in last election: 9 out of 57
- Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) / Partido Unidad Social Cristiana
- Leader: Randall QUIROS
- Seats won in last election: 8 out of 57
- National Restoration Party (PREN) / Partido Restauración Nacional
- Leader: Carlos Avendaño CALVO
- Seats won in last election: 7 out of 57
- Independent politicians
- Leader: N/A
- Seats won in last election: 12 out of 57
*Note: this list is comprised of parties who currently hold seats in Parliament.
Population and number of registered voters:
Gender Data:
- Female Population: Not available
- Is Costa Rica a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (signed 17 July 1980) [7]
- Has Costa Rica ratified CEDAW: Yes (ratified 4 April 1986) [8]
- Gender Quota: Yes, both legislated and voluntary quotas. (Costa Rican election law requires that ‘all delegations, electoral lists and other entities’ must be composed of 50% of each gender.) [9]
- Female candidates in this election: Yes
- Number of female legislators: 26 out of 57 [10]
- Human Development Index Position: 0.810 (ranked 62) [11]
- Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: Low (28%) [12]
Disability Data:
- Is Costa Rica a signatory to CRPD: Yes (signed 30 March 2007) [13]
- Has Costa Rica ratified CRPD: Yes (ratified 1 October 2008) [14]
- Population with a disability: 722,122 (2022 est.) [15]
[6] https://www.idea.int/data-tools/country-view/87/40
[7] https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx?Treaty=CEDAW&Lang=en
[9] https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/gender-quotas/country-view/87/35
[10] https://data.ipu.org/content/costa-rica?chamber_id=13371
[11] http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/CRI
[12] https://www.genderindex.org/wp-content/uploads/files/datasheets/2019/CR.pdf
[13] https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-15&chapter=4&clang=_en
[15] http://electionaccess.org/en/resources/countries/?q=costa+rica#tab