1978 Costa Rican general election

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 5 February 1978.^[1] Rodrigo Carazo Odio of the Unity Coalition won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 81%.^[2]

1978 Costa Rican general election

← 1974 5 February 1978 1982 →

Presidential election

Nominee Rodrigo Carazo Luis Alberto Monge Party CU PLN Popular vote 419,824 364,285 Percentage 50.51% 43.83%

Results by canton

President before election Daniel Oduber PLN Elected President Rodrigo Carazo CU

Legislative election

All 57 seats in the Legislative Assembly 29 seats needed for a majority

Party Leader % Seats +/– CU Rodrigo Carazo Odio 43.41 27 New PLN Luis Alberto Monge 38.86 25 −2 PU Rodrigo Gutiérrez Sáenz 7.66 3 New FPC Rodolfo Cerdas Cruz 1.56 1 New PUAC Martín Rolando Brenes 0.96 1 0 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Results by province

Carazo, a former congressman and former member of the National Liberation Party (probably Costa Rica's main political force), left the party several years before and created his own: Democratic Renovation, but a deeply split opposition on the 1974 election caused PLN's easy victory. With that in mind, main leaders of the non-Marxist opposition started talks in order to present a unified candidature.^[3][4]

Eventually these talks came through and the main parties in the opposition at the right of the government achieved an agreement; going into a primary election to choose the common nominee. Rodrigo Carazo faced wealthy industrial Miguel Barzuna winning by small margin. Even when some leaders left the coalition after this (most notably Jorge Gonzalez Marten from the National Independent Party and former president Mario Echandi) most of the leadership remained united.^[5] The Unity Coalition was created out of the joining of four parties: Carazo's Democratic Renovation, former president José Joaquín Trejos’ People's Union, Rafael Calderón Fournier (son of Calderonist leader Rafael Calderón Guardia) Republican Party and Dr. Jorge Arturo Monge's Christian Democratic Party (the smallest one of the coalition but the most ideologically coherent).^[6]

The Left also made a coalition; the three main far-left parties at the Left of PLN; Popular Vanguard, Costa Rican Socialist Party and Revolutionary People's Movement made the United People coalition,^[7] nominating former PLN member and doctor Rodrigo Gutierrez. Gutierrez had no possibilities to be president but the coalition did help the Left having a higher voting than usual and a large group in Congress. For many historians this election marks the beginning of Costa Rica's two-party system.^[8]