Training on Costa Rica’s new Electoral Code

Luis Antonio Sobrado, President of Costa Rica’s Supreme Elections Tribunal, speaking at the workshop.

Costa Rica’s Supreme Elections Tribunal and International IDEA jointly organized a workshop for Costa Rican political parties on 25 and 26 September 2009 to train them on how the new electoral rules affect political parties. 

Jesús Orozco from Mexico, and Humberto de la Calle from Colombia, two international experts, opened the seminar with comparative analysis of the reforms from a Latin American perspective. In addition, magistrates and experts from the Costa Rican electoral authority presented more detailed lectures on specific issues.

The following topics were addressed during the seminar:

• the role and structure of the Supreme Elections Tribunal, the system governing political parties, changes in the election period, amendments to the funding of political parties;
• the implementation of gender equality;
• and prohibitions and sanctions included in the new electoral code. 

Representatives of national, provincial, and district parties attended the seminar. Electoral officials whose duties will be directly affected by the changes in the legislation also took part in the event.

This is the first follow-up activity regarding the implementation of this electoral reform, which was approved in August 2009.