Faces of Costa Rica

Rebuilding Trust in Politics

Costa Rica recognizes the need to "recover faith in politics and state institutions and better the quality of democracy," as a national challenge in the 2002 State of the Nation report. Citizens are disenchanted with Costa Rican politics and politicians.

"Political apathy is evident in the number of people who do not vote in elections" said Jose Manuel Arias, an economist from San José, Costa Rica. Although voting is compulsory, just 70 percent of registered voters voted in the 2002 election, and 61 percent in the runoff election. In 2002, there were almost 2.3 million registered voters in Costa Rica.

In 2004, former PUSC presidents Miguel Ángel Rodríguez and Rafael Ángel Calderón were brought up on charges of corruption and are awaiting trial. Former PLN president José María Figueres has also been involved in scandals.

On February 5, 2006, former president and Nobel Prize winner Oscar Arias Sanchez (PLN) was elected president in the closest election in Costa Rican history, winning with 40.92 percent of the vote. Challenger Otton Solis (PAC) lost the election by a small margin with 39.80 percent of the vote.