At the Josefina López school in Santa Cruz, Marco Antonio Briceño left the polls wearing his Coalición Agenda Ciudadana (Citizen Action Coalition, CAC) shirt. At first glance, the shirts of the Partido Pueblo Soberano (Sovereign People’s Party, PPSO), led by President-elect Laura Fernández, were the most visible at the school. Briceño did not hide his surprise: “As far as I can remember, these are the most crowded elections. This school has been full all afternoon and there has been no let-up.”
At the gate of the institution, the candidate for first place for Unidos Podemos, Celia Pastrana, welcomed people. “Here at the educational center, 12,600 people are registered to vote. We have had reports at 2 p.m. of polling stations with 50% turnout, so we believe that people are indeed coming out to vote,” she commented optimistically.
Briceño and Pastrana’s perceptions were reflected in the election results. Guanacaste is the province, along with Puntarenas, where the percentage of abstention fell the most compared to the previous national elections in 2022. Mobilization in the two provinces, and in Limón, was key to Fernández’s victory. The candidate obtained more than half of her votes there alone.
The most recent breakdown from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) also reveals that the coasts voted differently from the provinces of the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM). What characteristics do the coastal provinces share?
1- Guanacaste and Puntarenas lead the reduction in abstention, but…
Guanacaste and Puntarenas were the provinces that reduced abstention the most compared to the 2022 presidential elections: Guanacaste reduced the figure by 10.92%, while Puntarenas reduced it by 11.02%. On the other hand, Limón was the province with the smallest reduction in participation, with a difference of 8.87%.
In the central provinces, the decrease was lower: San José 8.88%, Alajuela 9.55%, Cartago 9.99%, and Heredia 9.55%.
For Sharon Camacho, a researcher at the Center for Political Research and Studies (CIEP) at the University of Costa Rica (UCR), people decided to go out and vote for opposite reasons. “One sector was motivated to oppose continuity, while in rural and coastal areas, people were motivated by the hope that change had finally arrived,” Camacho analyzed.
For Ronald Alfaro, also from the CIEP, the division of the electorate mainly into two blocs made up of the PPSO and the opposition [made up of the other political forces] was one of the main causes of the drop in abstentionism. “Anywhere in the world, a polarized election is synonymous with higher turnout.”
But despite the fact that citizen participation increased in all provinces of the country, the three coastal provinces continue to report the highest rates of abstention. “We have seen this gap (between the center of the country and the periphery) in Costa Rica since 1953; the entire history of voting shows it,” said Alfaro.
In the last four presidential elections, Puntarenas, Limón, and Guanacaste have led the abstention rates, even exceeding the national figure.
“In rural coastal areas, people don’t see results. So why should I get involved? This explains why voter abstention has historically been higher in Guanacaste, Puntarenas, and Limón,” Camacho said.
2- The coastal regions gave Laura more than half of the votes she received nationwide
Laura Fernández swept six of the seven provinces, beating the Partido Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Party, PLN) by more than 300,000 votes. As in 2022, the PLN is the second political force in these elections.
In Guanacaste, she won 57.49% of the valid votes, in Puntarenas 63.64%, and in Limón 65.23%, for a total of 621,344 votes (52% of the total national support).
The results at the cantonal level also show greater support for the PPSO in rural communities and coastal provinces: 24 of the 82 cantons exceeded 60% support for the ruling party; 18 were cantons in coastal provinces.
Of the 11 cantons in the province, Abangares with 65.85%, Carrillo with 62.87%, and Santa Cruz with 60.34% are on that list.
“The idea of continuity of change and the restored discourse with the idea that now we will be able to govern in rural and coastal areas resonated strongly because of the inequality and neglect that people are very aware of,” Camacho analyzed.
Although the PLN was confirmed for the second consecutive time as the second political force in the elections, it was also in these provinces where it received the least support.
3- Nueva República appears on the coast
A similar pattern was repeated throughout most of the Central Valley: PPSO and PLN contested the top two spots in the presidential election, followed by the CAC and the Frente Amplio (Broad Front, FA).
Although PPSO and PLN also led the vote in Guanacaste, Puntarenas, and Limón, the order of the parties changed from third place onward. Nueva República (New Republic, NR) appeared more strongly in these three provinces, displacing the CAC and FA.
This behavior is not new. In the 2022 elections, NR consolidated its position as one of the main political forces in the coastal provinces, leading the vote in Limón and Puntarenas and ranking second in Guanacaste. In contrast, in the Central Valley provinces, the top spots were taken by Figueres of the PLN and Rodrigo Chaves of the Social Democratic Progress Party (PPSD).
For Camacho, the strength of NR and the PPSO was the grassroots work they did throughout the country.
“Most parties are Central Valley-centric, and people on the coast resent that. In contrast, the PPSO managed to get involved with more grassroots work. Its campaign was grassroots,” explained Camacho, who was an observer of the electoral process in Guápiles, Limón.
“People there told me a lot that there was no campaign by any other party here, while the ruling party sent buses from the smallest communities and appeared in small local media outlets. It was the candidacy they saw,” she said.
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