Costa Rican general election, 1974

Costa Rican general election, 1974
Costa Rica
February 3, 1974

Turnout 79%
 
Nominee Daniel Oduber Fernando Trejos
Party National Liberation National Unification
Home state San José San José
Popular vote 294,609 206,149
Percentage 43.4% 30.4%

President before election

José Figueres
National Liberation

Elected President

Daniel Oduber
National Liberation

This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Costa Rica

General elections were held in Costa Rica on February 3, 1974.[1] Daniel Oduber Quirós of the National Liberation Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 79.9%.[2]

The Left was theoretically outlawed as the Constitution didn’t allowed the existence of Marxist parties, but the prohibition was not endorsed in practice by that time and even was lifted with a Constitutional reform for the next election.[3]

Campaign

The government was affected in its popularity by the “Vesco Case” a corruption case involving then president José Figueres and his dubious connections with international criminal Robert Vesco, which caused heat for ruling party’s candidate Daniel Oduber.[3] Rodrigo Carazo, a former member of PLN and Congressman run as an independent candidate. Carazo had problems with Figueres when they both face each other in a primary election previously. Carazo promised to expel Vesco if he won, he also received the endorsement of former president José Trejos.[3]

Another heated issue was Communism in general, as the election was in the middle of the Cold War. Topics like the diplomatic relationships with the USSR (which candidate Jorge González Martén swear will end in his government). The Catholic Church made a public statement criticizing both Communism and savage Capitalism and calling for a third option.[3] Both PLN (Social Democrats) and the Christian Democratic Party claim to be that option. The traditional Left represented by Manuel Mora’s Socialist Action Party defended itself arguing that a previous archbishop Victor Manuel Sanabria expressed that Costa Rican catholics had no quarrel in being members of the Communist Party.[3] The far-right Free Costa Rica Movement also made a very expensive campaign against Mora's party on the media at the time.[3]

Another notorious candidate was Gerardo Wenceslao Villalobos, aka GW, a very eccentric candidate nominated by the Democratic Party. Villalobos did a lot of crazy stunts and unusual activities for a candidate, like boxing and wrestling matches or trying to jump in parachute. [3]

Results

President

Candidate Party Votes %
Daniel Oduber QuirósNational Liberation Party294,60943.4
Fernando Trejos EscalanteNational Unification Party206,14930.4
Jorge Gonzáles MarténNational Independent Party73,78810.9
Rodrigo Carazo OdioDemocratic Renovation Party61,8209.1
Gerdo Villalobos GaritaDemocratic Party18,8322.8
Manuel MoraSocialist Action Party16,0812.4
Jorge Arturo Monge ZamoraChristian Democratic Party3,4610.5
José Francisco Auilar BulgarelliCosta Rican Socialist Party3.4170.5
Invalid/blank votes21,183-
Total699,340100
Source: Nohlen

Parliament

Party Votes % Seats +/-
National Liberation Party271,86740.927-5
National Unification Party164,32324.716-6
National Independent Party66,22210.06New
Democratic Renovation Party51,0837.73New
Independent National Republican Party32,4754.91New
Socialist Action Party29,3104.420
Democratic Party14,1612.11New
Christian Democratic Party13,6882.100
Cartago Agrarian Union Party8,0741.21+1
Costa Rican Socialist Party6,0320.90New
Costa Rican People's Front4,4480.70New
Independent Party3,2820.50New
Invalid/blank votes34,078---
Total699,042100570
Source: Nohlen

References

  1. Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p155 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
  2. Nohlen, p157
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hernández Naranjo, Gerardo. "Reseña de las elecciones presidenciales de 1974" (PDF) (in Spanish). Retrieved 13 April 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/21/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.