Electoral reform in Costa Rica

After more than a decade of parliamentary discussion, Costa Rica enacted a new Electoral Code in August 2009. Originally initiated by the Supreme Tribunal of Elections (TSE) in early 2001, the Electoral Code represents a milestone in terms of electoral reform in Costa Rica. 

International IDEA provided technical support to the TSE and members of congress throughout the entire process. The Institute also provided support to the Committee on Electoral Affairs of the Congress whenever needed.

In particular, we assisted on matters related to the funding of political parties and gender. Part of International IDEA’s mandate is to provide comparative information to assist countries make appropriate choices as they move through the process of electoral reform.

The new electoral legislation addressed most of the concerns the country had regarding the issue of funding of political parties. This resulted in substantial changes in the area of public funding including:

• Establishing a permanent funding mechanism for political parties.
• Allocating public funding to reimburse expenses of political parties in municipal electoral processes.
• Giving political parties the right to make use of partial payment of the State’s contribution in advance. 
• Simplifying the paperwork for the verification of expenses of political parties.

With private funding, the most significant reforms are:

• To encourage transparency concerning donations or private contributions: donations or contributions coming from national legal entities are forbidden. In addition, the reform eliminates the contribution limit for Costa Rican nationals. 
• The control powers of TSE are increased.
• The reform improves the sanctions regime by giving the penal provisions a wider scope which complements the establishment of fines that the electoral body can impose.

Other relevant topics incorporated in the new electoral legislation are: 

• Provisions for overseas voting, which will be in effect as of the 2014 elections.
• Establishment of an increase in the female participation quota in party positions, and popular election. The increase leads to a level of parity.
• Inclusion of certain conditions of equality concerning voting for particular groups of voters such as Braille for visually impaired people. 

The Costa Rican electoral body, as well as the Congress, publicly acknowledged International IDEA’ s support and assistance throughout the entire process.  Likewise, they have requested our continued support for the follow up and implementation stages of the reform, and for its dissemination. A joint work plan for this purpose (between International IDEA, the Congress, and the Electoral Body) is already underway.