1953 Costa Rican general election

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 26 July 1953.[1] José Figueres Ferrer of the National Liberation Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 67.2 percent in the presidential election and 67.5 percent in the parliamentary election.[2]

1953 Costa Rican general election

26 July 1953
Turnout	67%
Presidential election
Nominee José Figueres Fernando Castro Cervantes Party PLN Democratic Home state Alajuela San José Popular vote 294,016 67,324 Percentage 64.7% 35.3%
Provinces won by Figueres
President before election Otilio Ulate PUN Elected President José Figueres PLN
Legislative election
Party Leader % Seats ± PLN José Figueres Ferrer 64.7% 30 New Democratic Fernando Castro Cervantes 21.2% 11 +9 PRN Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia 7.2% 3 +3 PUN Otilio Ulate Blanco 6.9% 1 -33 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

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This was Costa Rica’s first election since the end of the 1948 Civil War, and democratic guarantees were not fully restored.

José Figueres, the caudillo of the victorious National Liberation Army faction in the Civil War, was the candidate of the newly founded National Liberation Party (PLN).[3] Liberal Mario Echandi tried to be the candidate from then-ruling National Union Party (PUN), but his candidacy was denied by the Electoral Tribunal due to purported irregularities in the adherents' signatures.[3] This move was highly criticized by Figueres' opponents as an action in favor of Figueres' candidacy.[3]

As PUN was unable to participate, the only other candidacy alternate to Figueres was made by the Democratic Party, which nominated wealthy industrial magnate Fernando Castro Cervantes.[3] The three parties—PLN, PUN and Democratic—were all formerly united in opposition against the 1940s governments of Rafael Angel Calderón and his allies, who were viewed as having caused the civil war. Yet, after the war, such unification ceased.[3]

The losing sides in the civil war, mostly the Republicans (Calderón supporters) and the Communists, were unable to participate as the Republicans' party was disbanded and the Communist Party was constitutionally outlawed.[3] The Republicans were nonetheless allowed to participate in the legislative ballot with a provincial party in San José called the "Independent" Republican Party, and thereby gained some seats. As expected, Figueres won by a landslide victory.[3]