Municipal elections in Costa Rica under new auspices
PLN remains the strongest force but is still considered the loser - Unidos Podemos and PUSC make significant gains
Costa Rica is still one of the most stable and best-developed democracies in Latin America. However, the growing disenchantment with politics is reflected in the falling voter turnout. Only 31.96 per cent of all voters exercised their right to vote. In 2020, this figure was still 36.4 per cent. Verbal attacks against the renowned Supreme Electoral Court by supporters of the government, whose parties were excluded from the mayoral election for formal reasons, also caused controversy in the run-up to the elections. Despite this, the international election observers were once again able to certify that the country met the highest democratic standards. According to the election observers from the Organisation of American States (OAS), the election took place without incident.
There were 6,212 local politicians up for election. Costa Rica is divided into seven provinces and 84 cantons. Each canton consists of several districts (distrito). There are 84 elected mayors who head a canton (alcalde) and two deputy mayors (vicealcalde). Each canton has a parliament (concejo municipal), which is roughly equivalent to a district council and whose members are called 'regidores'. In addition to the district councillors with voting rights, each district elects a district representative (síndico), who represents the interests of the district in the district assemblies at cantonal level, and four district councillors (concejales), who support the district representative.