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
Turnout	81.27% ( 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

President

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Rodrigo Carazo Odio	Unity Coalition	419,824	50.51
	Luis Alberto Monge	National Liberation Party	364,285	43.83
	Rodrigo Alberto Gutiérrez Sáenz [es]	United People	22,740	2.74
	Guillermo Villalobos Arce [es]	National Unification Party	13,666	1.64
	Gerardo Villalobos Garita	Independent Party [es]	3,822	0.46
	Jorge González Martén [es]	National Independent Party	3,323	0.40
	Carlos Coronado Vargas	Workers' Socialist Organization Party [es]	1,868	0.22
	Rodrigo Cordero Víquez	Democratic Party	1,613	0.19
Total			831,141	100.00
Valid votes			831,141	96.62
Invalid votes			23,691	2.75
Blank votes			5,374	0.62
Total votes			860,206	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			1,058,455	81.27
Source: Election Resources

By province

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

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Unity Coalition	356,215	43.41	27	New
	National Liberation Party	318,904	38.86	25	–2
	United People	62,865	7.66	3	New
	National Unification Party	25,824	3.15	0	–16
	Costa Rican Peoples' Front [es]	12,834	1.56	1	+1
	Republican Union Party	8,215	1.00	0	New
	Cartago Agrarian Union Party	7,887	0.96	1	0
	National Independent Party	6,673	0.81	0	–6
	Independent Party [es]	5,774	0.70	0	0
	Workers' Socialist Organization Party [es]	4,059	0.49	0	New
	Democratic Party	3,083	0.38	0	–1
	Authentic Limonense Party	2,954	0.36	0	New
	Costa Rican Concord Party	2,542	0.31	0	New
	Authentic Puntarenense Party	1,729	0.21	0	New
	National Labour Party	1,002	0.12	0	New
Total		820,560	100.00	57	0
Valid votes		820,560	95.43
Invalid votes		25,731	2.99
Blank votes		13,597	1.58
Total votes		859,888	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,058,455	81.24
Source: Election Resources

By province

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

Party		Votes	%	Seats
				Alderpeople	+/–	Municipal syndics	+/–
	Unity Coalition	365,902	44.62	230	New	228	New
	National Liberation Party	328,009	40.00	213	–12	177	–173
	United People	52,707	6.43	23	New	0	New
	National Unification Party	29,598	3.61	4	–146	0	–37
	Costa Rican Peoples' Front [es]	10,153	1.24	1	+1	0	0
	Republican Union Party	10,005	1.22	0	New	0	New
	National Independent Party	7,623	0.93	0	–48	0	–2
	Independent Party [es]	3,726	0.45	1	+1	1	+1
	Democratic Party of the People	2,254	0.27	0	New	0	New
	Authentic Puntarenense Party	2,207	0.27	1	New	0	New
	Desamparadenean Alliance Party	2,062	0.25	1	New	0	New
	Authentic Limonense Party	2,008	0.24	1	New	0	New
	Costa Rican Concord Party	1,705	0.21	0	New	0	New
	Worker-Peasant Party	1,104	0.13	1	New	0	New
	Democratic Party	568	0.07	0	0	0	0
	Workers' Socialist Organization Party [es]	461	0.06	0	New	0	New
Total		820,092	100.00	476	+9	406	+16
Valid votes		820,092	95.36
Invalid/blank votes		39,909	4.64
Total votes		860,001	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,058,445	81.25
Source: TSE[9]

References

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.