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OAS Highlights Reliability of Costa Rican Electoral Process and Calls for Improvements in Voter Participation

The municipal elections of Sunday, December 5, were conducted under normal and peaceful conditions, once again placing in evidence the strength of Costa Rican democracy and the country’s civic tradition.

“The process was characterized by a high level of trustworthiness in the electoral system on the part of all stakeholders, for which we congratulate the TSE responsible for conducting the municipal elections, in the framework of the new institutions the Costa Rican State seeks to implement at the local level,” said the chief of the EOM/OAS, María Emma Mejía.

The Mission, at the invitation of the Supreme Electoral Court, for the first time observed municipal elections in Costa Rica and celebrates the efficiency of the electoral organization with the incorporation of significant technological innovations, such as quick transmission and publication of results.

The EOM/OAS highlights the importance and need to support the initiatives of the recently created Institute for Training and Democratic Studies (IFED), whose mission is the creation of training programs aimed at the citizenry and political parties, as well as the promotion of democratic values and civic participation. The OAS offers its full support to the work of the Institute.

It is important to highlight and congratulate the implementation and fulfillment of the norms of parity and gender equity established in the Electoral Code, that opened the way for the election of 10 new female mayors.

The third Costa Rican municipal elections saw a slight increase in voter participation compared with the elections in 2006 and 2002. Nevertheless, the EOM/OAS considers that 72% abstention constitutes a warning sign about the process of decentralization the Costa Rican State is developing.

That is why the Mission estimates that this transformation requires not only a transfer of duties and resources to effectively achieve municipal autonomy, but also public management capacities must be generated to strengthen the local government and the implementation of the General Law of Transference for the purpose of attending to the needs of the cities.

The EOM/OAS in the context of its work of observation, recommends:

1.- To consider the unification, in the future, of the national public financing system at the local level to make this important achievement by the Costa Rican electoral system more fair, particularly in support of small parties.

2.- To promote citizen awareness about the role and importance of local governments, a task that political collectivities and the Supreme Electoral Court must develop as fundamental pillars of democracy in times of elections as well as in between electoral cycles.

3.- To apply the provisions on advertising by the TSE established in the Radio Law, and to achieve the legislative reforms considered necessary to provide greater advertising opportunities and institutional dissemination to political parties.

The final report of the EOM/OAS that observed the municipal elections in Costa Rica will be presented during the next session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States at its headquarters in Washington, DC.

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

Reference: E-466/10