Electoral system for the president
Costa Rica
Constitution 1949 (last amended in 2011)
ARTICLE 138
The President and the Vice Presidents will be elected simultaneously and by a majority of votes that exceeds forty percent of the total number of [the] suffrage validly emitted.
The candidates for President and Vice Presidents of a party, must figure for their election in a same list [of nominations], with the exclusion of any other functionary to be elected.
If none of the lists [of nominations] reaches the indicated majority, a second popular election will be practiced on the first Sunday of April of the same year between the two lists [of nominations] that received more votes, those that figure on the one that obtains the greater number of [the] suffrage being elected.
If in any of the elections two lists [of nominations] result with [an] equal number of sufficient suffrage, the oldest candidate will be considered [tendrá por] elected as President, and the respective candidates of the same list [of nominations] as Vice Presidents.
The citizens included in a list [of nominations] already registered according to the law may not renounce the candidacy to the Presidency or Vice Presidencies, nor may the candidates of the two list [of nominations] that obtained [the] greater number of votes in the first [election] abstain themselves from figuring in the second election.
40% of the votes are required for a candidate to be elected in the first round.
