Costa Rican general election, 1994

Costa Rican general election, 1994

6 February 1994 (1994-02-06)
Turnout	81.1%
Candidate José María Figueres Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Miguel Salguero Party National Liberation Social Christian Unity Democratic Force Home state San José San José San José Presidential vote 739,339 (49.6%) 711,328 (47.7%) 28,274 (1.9%) Legislative vote 658,258 (44.6%) 595,802 (40.4%) 78,454 (5.3%) Seats 28 25 2 Seat change 3 4 New   Party Cartago Agrarian Union National Agrarian Presidential vote – – Legislative vote 16,336 (1.1%) 13,589 (0.9%) Seats 1 1 Seat change New
Provinces won by Figueres in Green, Rodríguez in blue
President before election Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier Social Christian Unity Elected President José María Figueres Olsen National Liberation

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General elections were held in Costa Rica on 6 February 1994.^[1] José María Figueres of the National Liberation Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 81.1%.^[2]

Campaign

The primary election were the main focus of controversy during this campaign, as they were particularly negative. In the case of PUSC Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría made a second attempt to earn the nomination running against José Joaquín Trejos Fonseca, son of former president José Joaquín Trejos Fernández. The campaign was very ideological with Trejos accusing Rodríguez of not really being Christian Democrat nor following the ideals of Christian socialism and instead being neoliberal. Rodríguez indeed acknowledged to follow classical liberalism and advocated for small government, but without completely abandon Christian Democracy's ideas.^[3]

PLN's primary was more focus on personal attacks. In it José María Figueres Olsen, son of PLN's caudillo and former president José Figueres Ferrer, faced popular anti-corruption and anti-narcotraffic deputy José Miguel Corrales, alongside other candidates like former First Lady Margarita Penón (wife of Óscar Arias) and San José Mayor Rolando Araya (nephew of former president Luis Alberto Monge). Thus, most candidates except Corrales came from important political families. Figueres' image was affected by the "Chemise Case", the allegations that he was involved in the murder of a young drug dealer while in custody during one of his father's governments.^[3] Figueres sued the authors of the book accusing him, and won, but the controversy was still used by Corrales in campaign, to no avail as Figueres won the primary election. Corrales did not support him afterward.^[3]

The negative campaign continue after the primaries. Rodríguez used the "Chemise Case" too and also accused Figueres of not being Catholic and belonging to the Christian Science cult, of having a military upraising due to his father's past as revolutionary caudillo and the fact that he's a West Point graduate, etc., in order to caused fear of an authoritarian government.^[3] Figueres campaign on the other hand tried to show Rodríguez as a cold, heartless entrepreneur with neoliberal ideas as a counterpart to Figueres socialdemocratic ideology.^[3]

Results

References