Municipal Elections: Wake Up, Voters!

The December elections for municipal council members are more important than ever, with decentralization placing more power in their hands, but officials are concerned that voter turnout will be as dismal as ever.

While Costa Ricans traditionally show greater enthusiasm in the general elections than their North American counterparts, their attention span fades for municipal voting--only 22.6% of registered voters cast ballots in 2002 and 2006 was only slightly better at 23.8%.

Contrast that with 68.8% in the 2002 nationwide presidential election, 65.2% in 2006 and 69.1% in 2010. Many voters say that they don't consider municipal officials relevant to their daily life despite their being responsible for such personal life-affecting aspects as town streets and other infrastructure, building codes, garbage pickups, parks and other governmental functions.

Moreover, municipalities which had only received a trickle of funds from such local revenue and building permits now get 10% of the national tax revenues. The change was palpable in such areas as La Capri district in Desamparados where, during the last term, officials let out bids for street resurfacing (the old streets looked as if they had been under heavy mortar attack) and a beautiful park/soccer field complex that must have sent property values soaring in this relatively new neighborhood.

Municipalities in Costa Rica differ from the governmental structure found in the United States in that they cover an entire area that would be a county or, in Louisiana, a parish.

Although some municipal governments found it hard to manage such sudden largess, others funded projects that had been only dreams. This directly affected citizens, further underscoring the reasons for evaluating candidates. The government is trying to make this easier by placing voter information on the Internet.

Also new is a change in the election code that allows parties to pump funds into these local elections. Whereas parties are considered important in municipal elections in Nicaragua, to Ticos they often seem irrelevant.

But whether changes will make a dent on voter apathy remains moot. For one thing, the timing couldn't be worse. The election is in the first week of December coinciding with the issuance of the alguinaldo, the extra one-month more of normal salary issued by employers for Christmas purchases. Voters are more involved with holiday shopping than with politics.

The government hopes the elections will seem important to more than the 17,000 candidates vying for nearly 5,000 municipal seats.