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Partial researchResearch snapshot 2026-09-13. Evidence gaps remain; see Coverage for requirements.

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Office briefing

SANTA ELENA — Syndic and district council — shared ballot

Tracked current office. Identifiers stay separate from display names.

Costa Rica · SANTA ELENA / GUANACASTE · other · Syndic and district council — shared ballotCR-D-GUANACASTE-LA-CRUZ-SANTA-ELENA

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TSE vote books joined to official elected-member declarations where geographic and total checks reconcile. Substitutes retained separately. Subsequent replacements and current officeholder status require review.

1. What office, where, and when is the next election?

Geography
SANTA ELENA / GUANACASTE
Next election
2028-02-06
Linked upcoming event
next-cae955c2bb33ef94a6f3804e
Registry qualification
Unknown

2. How certain is that date?

2028-02-06 is expected (not formally called). Day precision. A date without a formal call is not confirmed.

3. Who won earlier selected elections?

2024-02-04

Ordinary · Legal certification not established · list votes

  • NUEVA GENERACIÓN58.6%
  • UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANA28.5%
  • LIBERACIÓN NACIONAL6.6%
  • UNIÓN GUANACASTECA5.8%
  • AQUÍ COSTA RICA MANDA0.5%
Results for event-ef1f51c7676a6c948abdf2bf
Label / candidateParty codeVotesShareSeatsStatus
NUEVA GENERACIÓNcosta-rica/Sc1df243471/202434558.6%5Recorded
UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANAcosta-rica/Sc1df243471/202416828.5%0 (recorded zero)Recorded
LIBERACIÓN NACIONALcosta-rica/Sc1df243471/2024396.6%0 (recorded zero)Recorded
UNIÓN GUANACASTECAcosta-rica/Sc1df243471/2024345.8%0 (recorded zero)Recorded
AQUÍ COSTA RICA MANDAcosta-rica/Sc1df243471/202430.5%0 (recorded zero)Recorded

2020-02-02

Ordinary · Legal certification not established · list votes

  • UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANA51.7%
  • LIBERACIÓN NACIONAL26.7%
  • UNIÓN GUANACASTECA14.0%
  • RESTAURACIÓN NACIONAL6.7%
  • UNIDOS PODEMOS0.8%
Results for event-13402446d219234d0894cad5
Label / candidateParty codeVotesShareSeatsStatus
UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANAcosta-rica/Sfa91292290/202037051.7%3Recorded
LIBERACIÓN NACIONALcosta-rica/Sfa91292290/202019126.7%1Recorded
UNIÓN GUANACASTECAcosta-rica/Sfa91292290/202010014%1Recorded
RESTAURACIÓN NACIONALcosta-rica/Sfa91292290/2020486.7%0 (recorded zero)Recorded
UNIDOS PODEMOScosta-rica/Sfa91292290/202060.8%0 (recorded zero)Recorded

2016-02-07

Ordinary · Legal certification not established · list votes

  • LIBERACIÓN NACIONAL51.2%
  • UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANA45.2%
  • ACCIÓN CIUDADANA3.6%
Results for event-6f4e23584bf850c0aefc0996
Label / candidateParty codeVotesShareSeatsStatus
LIBERACIÓN NACIONALcosta-rica/S79669f3e5d/201634051.2%3Recorded
UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANAcosta-rica/S79669f3e5d/201630045.2%2Recorded
ACCIÓN CIUDADANAcosta-rica/S79669f3e5d/2016243.6%0 (recorded zero)Recorded

4. Competition and volatility

competition index

Provisional imported-series CI

0 (recorded zero)0–100 historical closeness

Actual-event and/or comparability review incomplete

Comparison status: Provisional imported-series comparison; actual-event review open

Method ci.weighted-gap.v1. Inputs: latest_gap=30.0509337860781, oldest_gap=6.0240963855421725, previous_gap=25.034965034965033

pedersen volatility

Provisional volatility

50.03percentage points

Grouped Pedersen lower bound (percentage points). Twelve explicitly named standalone national parties; accent variants normalized. Local parties and coalitions remain Other. No alliance votes are attributed to individual member parties. An interval is withheld if either election has no list mapped to an explicit named group. This is aggregate share change, not individual voter switching. Event review: Actual-event and/or comparability review incomplete

Comparison status: Latest interval

Method pedersen.grouped.v1. Inputs: groups=["PLN","PUSC","PAC","Frente Amplio","PRN","Nueva Republica","PML","PIN","PASE","PRSC","PLP","PPSD","Other"], interval=Latest interval, vectors=[[6.621392190152801,28.522920203735143,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,64.85568760611206],[26.713286713286713,51.74825174825175,0,0,6.713286713286713,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,14.825174825174827],[51.204819277108435,45.18072289156626,3.6144578313253013,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]]

pedersen volatility

Provisional volatility

28.11percentage points

Grouped Pedersen lower bound (percentage points). Twelve explicitly named standalone national parties; accent variants normalized. Local parties and coalitions remain Other. No alliance votes are attributed to individual member parties. An interval is withheld if either election has no list mapped to an explicit named group. This is aggregate share change, not individual voter switching. Event review: Actual-event and/or comparability review incomplete

Comparison status: Previous interval

Method pedersen.grouped.v1. Inputs: groups=["PLN","PUSC","PAC","Frente Amplio","PRN","Nueva Republica","PML","PIN","PASE","PRSC","PLP","PPSD","Other"], interval=Previous interval, vectors=[[6.621392190152801,28.522920203735143,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,64.85568760611206],[26.713286713286713,51.74825174825175,0,0,6.713286713286713,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,14.825174825174827],[51.204819277108435,45.18072289156626,3.6144578313253013,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]]

pedersen volatility

Provisional volatility

39.07percentage points

Grouped Pedersen lower bound (percentage points). Twelve explicitly named standalone national parties; accent variants normalized. Local parties and coalitions remain Other. No alliance votes are attributed to individual member parties. An interval is withheld if either election has no list mapped to an explicit named group. This is aggregate share change, not individual voter switching. Event review: Actual-event and/or comparability review incomplete

Comparison status: Both intervals mean

Method pedersen.grouped.v1. Inputs: groups=["PLN","PUSC","PAC","Frente Amplio","PRN","Nueva Republica","PML","PIN","PASE","PRSC","PLP","PPSD","Other"], interval=Both intervals mean, vectors=[[6.621392190152801,28.522920203735143,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,64.85568760611206],[26.713286713286713,51.74825174825175,0,0,6.713286713286713,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,14.825174825174827],[51.204819277108435,45.18072289156626,3.6144578313253013,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]]

Source-reported control: Unverified. Current tenure requires separate dated evidence.

5. Officeholder evidence

Dated roster observations are not automatically current tenure. The source current-office flag means this office is tracked now, not that the last winner still holds it.

Officeholder observations
PersonRoleAs ofAffiliationPrincipal?
CINTHYA JANANY ARROYO AMPIESINDICATURAS PROPIETARIA2024NUEVA GENERACIÓNprincipal
RANDY ALVARADO UMAÑASINDICATURAS SUPLENTE2024NUEVA GENERACIÓNsubstitute
REBECA JEANNETTE ESPINOZA RAMIREZCONCEJALÍAS DE DISTRITO PROPIETARIAS2024NUEVA GENERACIÓNprincipal
NOE LANUZA VEGACONCEJALÍAS DE DISTRITO PROPIETARIAS2024NUEVA GENERACIÓNprincipal
KAREN PAOLA LARA AVENDAÑOCONCEJALÍAS DE DISTRITO PROPIETARIAS2024NUEVA GENERACIÓNprincipal
MINOR LARA VICTORCONCEJALÍAS DE DISTRITO PROPIETARIAS2024NUEVA GENERACIÓNprincipal
GRETEL DE LOS ANGELES VEGA ALEMANCONCEJALÍAS DE DISTRITO SUPLENTES2024NUEVA GENERACIÓNsubstitute
ROLANDO MORALES CARMONACONCEJALÍAS DE DISTRITO SUPLENTES2024NUEVA GENERACIÓNsubstitute
MELANNY ANNETTE LARA RUBIOCONCEJALÍAS DE DISTRITO SUPLENTES2024NUEVA GENERACIÓNsubstitute
CAIRO JOSE SANCHEZ LOPEZCONCEJALÍAS DE DISTRITO SUPLENTES2024NUEVA GENERACIÓNsubstitute
KATERINE GARCIA CARRIONSÍNDICOS(AS) PROPIETARIA2020UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANAprincipal
EDDIE ANTONIO SELVA ALVARADOSÍNDICOS(AS) SUPLENTE2020UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANAsubstitute
CARMEN CORTES MORALESCONCEJALES DE DISTRITO PROPIETARIOS(AS)2020UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANAprincipal
JUAN ALEMAN LOBOCONCEJALES DE DISTRITO PROPIETARIOS(AS)2020UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANAprincipal
REBECA JEANNETTE ESPINOZA RAMIREZCONCEJALES DE DISTRITO PROPIETARIOS(AS)2020LIBERACIÓN NACIONALprincipal
ELIETTE ALEMAN VICTORCONCEJALES DE DISTRITO PROPIETARIOS(AS)2020UNIÓN GUANACASTECAprincipal
ANA FIORELA LARA MARTINEZCONCEJALES DE DISTRITO SUPLENTES2020UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANAsubstitute
ALBA ROBERSY RODRIGUEZ PARRALESCONCEJALES DE DISTRITO SUPLENTES2020LIBERACIÓN NACIONALsubstitute
RAFAEL ANGEL LARA VICTORCONCEJALES DE DISTRITO SUPLENTES2020UNIÓN GUANACASTECAsubstitute
JORGE MANUEL ALAN FONSECASÍNDICOS(AS) PROPIETARIO2016LIBERACIÓN NACIONALprincipal
JEANNETTE RAMIREZ RODRIGUEZSÍNDICOS(AS) SUPLENTE2016LIBERACIÓN NACIONALsubstitute
MIGUEL ANGEL CENTENO AMPIECONCEJALES DE DISTRITO PROPIETARIOS(AS)2016LIBERACIÓN NACIONALprincipal
MELISSA GUEVARA PARRALESCONCEJALES DE DISTRITO PROPIETARIOS(AS)2016LIBERACIÓN NACIONALprincipal
VICENTE CHACON NAVASCONCEJALES DE DISTRITO PROPIETARIOS(AS)2016UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANAprincipal
AGUSTINA OBANDO REYESCONCEJALES DE DISTRITO PROPIETARIOS(AS)2016UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANAprincipal
JORDAN LOPEZ LOPEZCONCEJALES DE DISTRITO SUPLENTES2016LIBERACIÓN NACIONALsubstitute
VICTORIA EUGENIA LARA MARTINEZCONCEJALES DE DISTRITO SUPLENTES2016LIBERACIÓN NACIONALsubstitute
JUAN ALEMAN LOBOCONCEJALES DE DISTRITO SUPLENTES2016UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANAsubstitute
KATERINE GARCIA CARRIONCONCEJALES DE DISTRITO SUPLENTES2016UNIDAD SOCIAL CRISTIANAsubstitute

6. Polling context

No local poll supplied.

7. Unresolved issues and sources

  • other · open

    Published province heading correction: {"issue": "Published province heading correction", "year": 2020, "area": "Heredia", "source_id": "S41377daad8", "resolution": "The amendment corrects CARTAGO to HEREDIA in the second table heading. It changes no votes, winners or seats; the original declaration is joined to Heredia."}

Sources

Cite this record

Center for Digital Democracy. “SANTA ELENA — Syndic and district council — shared ballot.” Subnational Election Observatory, releaselatin-america-fe5e91689def, snapshot 2026-09-13. /electiondatabase/offices/CR-D-GUANACASTE-LA-CRUZ-SANTA-ELENA. Sources: costa-rica--url-ae6cfb21525f974d8912a00e, costa-rica--url-9b0bf8940eb485b811da317e, costa-rica--url-f8a1e09c9e89a7e5e9c55114, costa-rica--Sc1df243471, costa-rica--S7f113cf23c, costa-rica--Sfa91292290, costa-rica--S8dad4ea405, costa-rica--S79669f3e5d, costa-rica--S9d20aa4fc8.