Apathy and criticism of the electoral referee: municipal officials raise concerns in Costa Rica

The municipal elections that the Central American country held on Sunday in an atmosphere of popular apathy brought a lot of worries for Costa Rica's exemplary democratic system: there were unprecedented questions to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and the deficient financing of the campaign of the 75 participating parties, over which suspicions of the influence of drug trafficking money also hovered, which raised the number of homicides to maximums in 2023.

In the first elections after the “peaceful revolution” that Rodrigo Chaves claimed with his rise to power in 2022 against traditional politics, the authorities of the country's 84 City Councils were elected with the vote of a minority of Costa Ricans, since National abstention rose to 68%, a figure worse than expected and contrary to the trend brought by the latest municipal electoral processes.

The popular disinterest in the elections is not entirely a surprise, but on this occasion there could have been additional factors.

Added to the growing devaluation of the figure of political parties and the confusion caused by transfuguismo and the multiplicity of flags is the uncertain participation of the political movement related to President Rodrigo Chaves, whose popularity of more than 50% of the electorate could not be channeled towards a clear political party.

In Costa Rica, voting is mandatory, but there are no consequences for those who are absent.

Costa Rican law prohibits presidents and ministers from entering into electoral matters, but in the game of powers there was a factor that ended expectations for these elections.

After Chaves' break with leaders of the Social Democratic Progress Party (PPSD) that brought him to power, the figures in the President's circle could not meet the legal requirements to compete through two groups created to try to bring the “revolution” to local governments. peaceful” that the

outsider

president took credit for when he triumphed in 2022 with a disruptive speech against traditional politics in the only “full democracy” in Central America, according to The

Economist classification.

There was no possibility of measuring Chaves' current electoral strength and his style of clash against institutions outside the Executive, although he must leave power in 2026 as he cannot opt ​​for immediate re-election.

The non-compliance with the requirements of the groups related to Chaves caused some to question the probity of the TSE and take their claim to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), while versions emerged from those around them about a false international order to accept the candidacies of those groups. groups and even about the suspension of the elections.

The confusion was greater for a sector of the electorate, as illustrated on Sunday by Steven Garro, a young car mechanic who went to vote at a school in San José: “I was not going to come because on WhatsApp they told me that there were no elections, but Some friends told me yes and I came because, oh, it's supposed to be done, but I voted with doubts for those people from Progreso (PPSD).”

He believed he had voted for “the president's party,” but that is his old flag.

Others, the majority, avoided submitting to that confusion and did not go directly.

The uncertain participation of the Chaves sector could be a factor, but analysts warn that the elements are more abundant and varied than that to justify the size of the problem.

The observer group of the Organization of American States (OAS) issued a report on Tuesday in which it draws attention to the absenteeism.

“The Mission is concerned that participation in the electoral process has decreased even further, given that only around 31% of the population went to the polls.

The abstention rate continues to be a challenge for municipal elections and for democracy in Costa Rica,” the delegation reported.

Although it noted what is usual for Costa Rica (“a democratic and peaceful day”) and the novelty of laws that increased the presence of women in mayors' offices and put an end to the possibility of perpetual re-election of mayors, the electoral observers' report recorded “that the electoral campaign was marked by misinformation and fake news” and took note of the unprecedented statements of the presiding judge of the TSE, Eugenia Zamora, in her speech on Sunday night.

“Never before an election have we been the object of such an aggressive digital offensive of disinformation, full of slander and hate speech against judges of this Court (...) Never before have so many efforts been made expressly aimed at preventing the celebration of these elections," said the magistrate before revealing the first results, which confirmed the remaining dominance of traditional parties and the growth of new locally based currencies, such as the one that jumped to the mayor's office of San José and ended with 33 years of power of Johnny Araya, figure of the National Liberation Party (PLN), for which he was a presidential candidate in the second round of 2014.

The concerns raised by the OAS mission, however, also touch on crime issues related to the increase in the power of drug trafficking organizations and the wave of insecurity that is positioned as the main problem on a national and cantonal scale, according to surveys.

“The Mission took note of the growing concern of several actors with whom it met about the risk of the entry of organized crime and, with it, illicit funds (especially from drug trafficking) into political competition,” says the report on a an issue that has been warned about since 2015, when the expansion of criminal gangs was still far from reaching current levels of homicidal violence and money laundering crimes.

Millions of dirty dollars circulate in Costa Rica in parallel to the financing needs of political parties, which compete governed by rules that force groups to seek bank loans according to their chances of success and then justify the expenses before the TSE to seek a reinstatement, but only if they reach a certain quota of votes.

It is a lottery in the current changing political terrain, except for the two traditional forces of the extinct two-party system of the 20th century (PLN and the Social Christian Unity Party, PUSC), which together achieved more than 40% of the vote on Sunday.

Not even the Citizen Action Party (PAC) has been able to achieve stability, which governed between 2014 and 2022 and now lacks positions of deputies, mayors or councilors.

Despite greater controls by the TSE, no one can give certainty as to how the candidacies within established groups are financed or where the money of numerous new parties comes from.

“This situation entails significant financial risks for candidates, in addition to an excessive dependence on private financing,” the report warns.

The analyzes and proposals for legal reforms are part of the after-dinner meal for specialists, authorities or experts, but the population will not have to go to the polls until 2026 when they vote for a new president and new deputies, elections that begin to be calculated from uncertainty although they usually offer different conditions to the municipal ones, in which the realities vary between each of the 84 cantons.

“We will not be able to fully understand these elections, due to the absence of this great actor in the race,” said Eugenia Aguirre, a political scientist at the National Politics Observatory at the University of Costa Rica (UCR), alluding to a movement articulated around Chaves and their wasted opportunity to build a territorial structure.

The president, who months ago pointed out the opportunity of these elections to continue the political change in the country, ended up making a general call to vote to strengthen democracy.

“Because what is not used atrophies,” he said without knowing that abstentionism would be the highest since 2010.

Follow all the information from El PAÍS América on

Facebook

and

X

, or in our

weekly newsletter

.