1940 Costa Rican general election

1940 Costa Rican general election

11 February 1940
Presidential election
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Nominee Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia Manuel Mora Virgilio Salazar Leiva
Party PRN BOC CG [es]
Popular vote 92,849 10,825 6,242
Percentage 84.47% 9.85% 5.68%

President before election

León Cortés Castro
PRN

Elected President

Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia
PRN

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 11 February 1940.[1] Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia of the Independent National Republican Party won the presidential election. Voter turnout was 81% in the presidential election and 66% in the parliamentary election.[2]

Since 1938, two tendencies had begun to emerge in the ranks of the Republican Party, one revolving around the popular ex president Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno and another around the young doctor and charismatic politician Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia.[3] Jiménez, however, an old man, would gradually leave power and influence, and the "Jimenismo" lost ground to Calderonismo, which also has full support from the government chaired by León Cortés Castro who pressures Jiménez into retirement.[3]

To prevent a triumph of the Calderonismo a coalition was tried between the Communist Party, a faction of the jimenismo and the Social Democratic Guanacastecan Brotherhood called National Democratic Alliance, nevertheless when Jiménez declines to be candidate this is broken so the parties that integrate it ran separately. During the National Republican Convention Calderón is selected presidential nominee and wins the elections.[3]

  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p155 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
  2. ^ Nohlen, p156
  3. ^ a b c Rodriguez Vega, Eugenio (2004). Costa Rica en el siglo veinte. Costa Rica: Costa Rica en el siglo veinte. ISBN 9789968313834.