1906 Costa Rican general election

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 1 April 1906.^[1] They were held during the presidency of Ascensión Esquivel Ibarra. Ibarra openly supported candidate Cleto González Víquez.^[2] Other candidates were former president Bernardo Soto Alfaro, former State and Police Secretary Tobías Zúñiga Castro, the also former State Secretary (during Bernardo Soto's administration) Máximo Fernández Alvarado and former justice and Foreign Secretary Ezequiel Gutiérrez Iglesias.^[2] Difference were more personal than ideological as all candidates except Gutiérrez were liberals, and the election had a strong "anti-cletista" component. This "anti-cletismo" was what united the opposition and talks about a common joint front occurred but it was not applied. Gutiérrez was candidate of the conservative "Democratic Union", the party that emerged from the now outlawed Catholic Union.^[2]

1906 Costa Rican general election

← 1902 1 April 1906 1910 →

Presidential election

Nominee Cleto González Víquez Máximo Fernández Alvarado Party National Republican Electoral vote 427 24 Percentage 91.43% 5.14%

President before election Ascensión Esquivel Ibarra PUN Elected President Cleto González Víquez National

Elections on this period were indirect.^[3] The first round of voters were all male citizens who had an income "according to their social status" and knew how to read and write, which considering that Costa Rica had very high literacy standards for the time and the economic requirement was very ambiguous meant around 60% of the male population could vote.^[3] These first level voters choose the Electors who normally had other requirements (particularly, owning properties or having college degrees which meant most of them were middle to high class) and the Electors elected the President, members of Congress and municipal authorities.^[3]

Thus, after the first-level election Electors could be pressured into changing the candidate they were supposed to support. After the first round Fernández and Soto endorsed Zuñiga who seem to be the most likely option to defeat González, however, arguing "public order" reasons Ibarra essentially made a crack-down on the opposition declaring martial law and exiling Fernández, Soto and Zuñiga who ended up in New York.^[2] After González was proclaimed president they were allowed to come back although Zuñiga retired from politics.^[2]

Results

Candidate		Party	First round		Second round
			Votes	%	Votes	%
	Cleto González Víquez	National Party	351	41.05	427	91.43
	Máximo Fernández Alvarado	Republican Party	273	31.93	24	5.14
	Tobías Zúñiga Castro	People's Party [es]	130	15.20	3	0.64
	Bernardo Soto Alfaro	Independent Republican Party	82	9.59	9	1.93
	Ezequiel Gutiérrez Iglesias	Democratic Union Party	19	2.22	4	0.86
Total			855	100.00	467	100.00
Source: TSE, Salazar[4]

Second round by province

Province	González	Fernández	Zúñiga	Soto
San José Province	30	12	2	5
Alajuela	96	3	1	4
Cartago Province	101	-	-	-
Heredia	63	9	-	-
Guanacaste	78	-	-	-
Puntarenas	26	-	-	-
Limón	33	-	-	-
Total	427	24	3	9
Source: Salazar[5]

References

1. "Historia de las elecciones presidenciales 1824–2014" (PDF). Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones de Costa Rica. 2017.
2. Oconitrillo, Eduardo. La política electoral. Costa Rica en el siglo XX. EUNED.
3. Molina, Iván (2001). "Elecciones y democracia en Costa Rica, 1885-1913" (PDF). European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. 70: 41–57. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-05-02. Retrieved 2018-12-21.
4. Salazar, O. (2003) El apogeo de la República Liberal en Costa Rica, 1870-1914, p 214 ISBN 9977-67-131-1
5. Salazar, O. (2003) El apogeo de la República Liberal en Costa Rica, 1870-1914, p 220 ISBN 9977-67-131-1