1998 Costa Rican general election

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 1 February 1998.[2] Miguel Ángel Rodríguez of the Social Christian Unity Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 70%, the lowest since the 1950s.[3]

1998 Costa Rican general election

1 February 1998[1]

Presidential election

Candidate Miguel Ángel Rodríguez José Miguel Corrales Party PUSC PLN Popular vote 652.160 618,834 Percentage 46.9% 44.4%

Provinces won by Rodriguez in blue, Corrales in green

President before election José María Figueres PLN Elected President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez PUSC

Legislative election

Party Leader % Seats ± PUSC Miguel Ángel Rodríguez 41.2% 27 +2 PLN José Miguel Corrales Bolaños 34.8% 23 -5 FD Vladimir de la Cruz 5.6% 3 +1 ML Federico Malavassi Calvo 3.1% 1 New PIN Walter Muñoz Céspedes 2.8% 1 New PRC Justo Orozco Álvarez 2.0% 1 New PALA 1.2% 1 +1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

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An economic recession, a teachers' strike due to a pensions' reform and some corruption scandals made President José María Figueres' government highly unpopular. Thus, government endorsed candidate José Miguel Corrales tried to distance himself from Figueres as much as possible. Corrales won over former President of Congress Jorge Walter Coto Molina in PLN's primaries but the discovery of Voter fraud damaged PLN's image and split the party.[4] On the contrary in PUSC, previous candidate Miguel Ángel Rodríguez was seen as the natural nominee for this election, and despite the fact that deputy Luis Fishman was rumored as a possible internal opponent, he finally declined and Rodríguez was nominated without the need of primaries, thus keeping the party united. During Figueres' administration the so call Figueres-Calderón Pact was signed between the leaders of the two main parties (and sons of the two caudillos of the 1948 civil war); him and Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier (Rodríguez political rival) to approve several mutually beneficial laws for both major parties, something that caused outrage among large segments of the population and started the downfall of the two-party system.[5]