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Press Release of the OAS Electoral Observation Mission in Costa Rica

The Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States (EOM/OAS) congratulates Luis Guillermo Solís, of the Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC), for his victory in the presidential elections held on April 6, as well as the Costa Rican people for their participation and democratic commitment. The Mission highlights that election day proceeded normally and peacefully, demonstrating the strength of the country's civic tradition.

The Mission, led by former Mexican presidential candidate Josefina Vázquez Mota, accompanied both the first and second rounds of the presidential elections. The Mission was made up of 22 international observers and election experts from ten OAS Member States.

Starting in January, the EOM/OAS implemented three methodologies that allowed its members to monitor equity in media coverage of the electoral campaigns, access to political and electoral funding, and participation by men and women throughout the electoral process. Based on their findings, the Mission published a preliminary report that included a number of recommendations aimed at strengthening the Costa Rican democratic process.

The EOM/OAS highlights the impact of some of these recommendations. Specifically, the adoption of measures on behalf of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to improve the transparency of the technical aspects of opinion polls as to guarantee that citizens have enough information to interpret them correctly.

Moreover, while the Mission congratulates the implementation in this election, for the first time, of principles of gender parity and alternation requirements of candidates by sex, the report recommended the implementation of horizontal alternation mechanisms in the first positions of electoral lists to guarantee the effectiveness of this measure and to allow more women to be elected. This recommendation was included in a bill presented to the National Assembly suggesting that among the seven slates of candidates submitted by each party; at least three should be headed by women.

For the first time, this electoral process included the implementation of the vote abroad. In consulates of 40 countries, 12,654 people were given the option to vote. This initiative is an important step forward to guaranteeing the full exercise of the political rights of all Costa Ricans.

Observations and recommendations of the second round of the presidential elections:

i) Electoral Participation

Despite forecasts predicting low voter turnout, which is characteristic of second electoral rounds and that was accentuated by the extraordinary political context of the campaign, the democratic spirit of the Costa Rican people prevailed. Consequently, abstention levels were similar to those registered in 2002, the last time the country went to a runoff.

Nonetheless, the EOM/OAS points out the importance of continuing promoting efforts to increase citizenship participation. The initiative of having children participate in a simulation of the electoral process is a good step in this direction. Additionally, the activities performed by the Institute for Training and Studies in Democracy (IFED in its Spanish initials) should continue to be promoted.

ii) Polling Station Composition

During the second round of the electoral process, the EOM/OAS took note of the concerns expressed by several political actors regarding the capacity of political parties to register enough members to staff the polling stations. This concern has already been expressed in the report of the 2010 Mission that highlighted this issue as one of the main flaws of the elections. On that occasion, the EOM/OAS noticed that only half of the observed polling stations were integrated by all the members appointed by political parties. Although the designation by the Electoral Supreme Tribunal of electoral assistants allowed to reach the number of people required for each polling station in the event of absence of any of its members, in practice, this became the norm instead of serving as an alternative to be used in exceptional situations.

The EOM/OAS recommends analyzing the regulations in place regarding the composition of polling stations and exploring new mechanisms for future polling station composition, inspired in successful models used by other countries of the region.

Other recommendations regarding the electoral process:

The Mission reiterates some of the recommendations made after the first electoral round:

- Regarding the equal access to public funding, the Mission recommended exploring the possibility of increasing the percentage of state contribution that political parties can request in advance. In addition, the EOM/OAS suggested establishing financing rules that do not require liquid collateral to access funding but that guarantee accountability and government control of resources. Moreover, the current mechanisms that make opinion polls the reference to determine the amount of funding given to political parties by financial institutions must be revised.

- To guarantee equity in media access, the Mission recommended evaluating the inclusion of publicity allotments subsidized by the state into legislation to guarantee that all parties have access to media so they can present their campaign proposals.

- To strengthen the party system, the Mission incentivized them to maintain their political activities between elections and to use public resources that are available by law to train their members.

As was already mentioned in the report published following the first electoral round, these recommendations could be promoted in the context of a public discussion encouraging a national agreement on political and institutional reforms responsive to the new political context.

Lastly, the OAS would like to thank the Governments of Bolivia, Chile, France, Israel, Luxemburg, and the United States for their financial contributions, which made possible this Electoral Observation Mission.

The Mission will publish a more comprehensive report detailing the observations and recommendations done in this electoral process.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-135/14