National Restoration Party (Costa Rica)

National Restoration party
Partido Restauración Nacional
President Carlos Luis Avendaño Calvo
Secretary-General Mónica Catalán Marín
Founded 5 February 2005[1]
Ideology Conservatism[2]
Political position Right-wing to Far right[3]
Religion Evangelical Christianity
Colours Yellow and blue
Legislative Assembly
14 / 57
Party flag

The National Restoration Party (Spanish: Partido Restauración Nacional – PRN) is a political party in Costa Rica. It was founded in 2005 mostly by dissidents of Costa Rica's historical Christian party, Costa Rican Renewal, after its then only deputy, Carlos Avendaño, left.[1] Avendaño would successfully return to Congress because of the party from 2010 to 2014. Even though he had personal differences with Justo Orozco (then the PRC's only deputy), both were able to work together in defending the same agenda, mainly the conservative views of the evangelical community. The party's candidate in the presidential election of 2014 was Avendaño, who received 1.35 percent of the vote.[4]

In the same year's parliamentary election, Gerardo Fabricio Alvarado Muñoz, representing San José, was elected to the only seat in the Legislative Assembly that was won by the party.[5]

In the 2018 Costa Rican general elections the party when it won 14 of the parliament seats and its presidential candidate, Fabricio Alvarado, went in to the runoff.[6] According to the BBC, his campaign gained in popularity because of his opposition to same-sex marriage.[7] The party also holds anti-inmigration positions and calls for closed borders and harsher controls on migrants.[8]

Controversies

In March 2018, the newspaper Semanario Universidad reported that high figures of the party had billed several million colones for professional services for participating in their own campaign such as the beneficiaries' own candidate, Fabricio Alvarado, his wife, his brothers, his two vice-presidential nominees, two sons, and the ex-wife of the party president, Carlos Avendaño.[9] It was later discovered that one of the beneficiaries, the son of Avendaño, had received professional services for working for the party while he was incapacitated by health from his official work at the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity.[10] In May 2018, it was reported that the party had hired the polling company OPol, according to financial reports submitted to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Although party officials originally reported that they were political consultancies unrelated to the polls, subsequent investigations by the newspaper La Nación discovered a contract for the payment of the six surveys that were conducted during the second round campaign, five of which were published and all of which Alvarado appeared as frontrunner by a large margin.[11] Previously, the pollster had already been in controversy after it was reported on social networks that a company vehicle driven by director Mauricio Muñoz, had carried party flags.

In late May, Avendaño himself filed a complaint with the Supreme Electoral Tribunal for what he called a "parallel structure" made up of the campaign team of the candidate for hiring outside the ethical controls stipulated by the party that would have been the one that negotiated those and other payments.[12][13]

Electoral performance

Presidential

Election Candidate First round Second round
Votes % Position Result Votes % Position Result
2014 Carlos Avendaño 27,691 1.35% 7/13 Lost — — — —
2018 Fabricio Alvarado 505,214 24.91% Increase 1/13 - 822,997 39.21% Decrease 2/2 Lost

Parliamentary

Election Leader Votes % Seats +/– Position Government
2006 32,909 2.0%
1 / 57
 New party 8/27 Opposition
2010 29,530 1.6%
1 / 57
 Steady 0 8/18 Opposition
2014 84,265 4.11%
1 / 57
 Steady 0 6/21 Opposition
2018 Fabricio Alvarado 356,082 18.11%
14 / 57
 Increase 13 2/18 Opposition

References

  1. 1 2 Partido Político Restauración Nacional Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones. Retrieved: 2014-03-05. (in Spanish)
  2. ↑ Estatuto Partido Restauración Nacional Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones. Retrieved: 2014-05-10. (in Spanish)
  3. ↑ 'Gender ideology': big, bogus and coming to a fear campaign near you the Guardian
  4. ↑ Resultados Electorales: Total General Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones. 2014-02-17. (in Spanish)
  5. ↑ Declaratoria de elección de Diputados a la Asamblea Legislativa de la República de Costa Rica 2014-2018 Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine. Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones, 2014-03-03. (in Spanish)
  6. ↑ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42938510
  7. ↑ "Costa Rica election: Gay marriage debate dominates campaign". BBC News Online. 4 February 2018. p. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42938510. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  8. ↑ Chinchilla, Aaron (25 July 2018). "Restauración Nacional exige al Gobierno reforzar controles migratorios en Peñas Blancas". El Periódico.
  9. ↑ Murillo, Alvaro; Miranda, Hulda; Salazar, Daniel (27 March 2018). "Restauración reporta al TSE pagos a Fabricio y sus vicepresidentes por alquilar carros a la campaña". Semanario Universidad. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  10. ↑ "Hijo de diputado trabajo para restauracion". La Nación. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  11. ↑ Cambronero, Natasha (25 May 2018). "Encuestas de Opol se hicieron por encargo de Restauración Nacional de cara a la segunda ronda". La Nación. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  12. ↑ Cambronero, Natasha; Sequeira, Aarón (29 May 2018). "Carlos Avendaño denuncia 'estructura paralela' en financiamiento de campaña de Fabricio Alvarado". La Nación. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  13. ↑ Oviedo, Esteban; Cambronero, Natasha; Sequeira, Aarón. "Empresa de cantante reclama ¢115 millones a Restauración y anuncia demanda en tribunales". La Nación. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
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