Local Elections Now Require Gender Parity
Costa Rica’s constitutional court, known as Sala IV, ruled in Feb. 2023 that half of all the candidates running for local offices in the 2024 municipal elections must be women.
The Electorate’s Eroding Choices
There are 144 political parties registered with the Elections Supreme Tribunal (TSE in Spanish) whose candidates are eligible to run in Feb. 2024. TSE magistrate and president Eugenia Zamora explained, as quoted by Semanario Universidad, that the partisan fragmentation is a result of eroding identification that the citizenry feels toward their representatives in all governing branches. Definitely a must-explore issue at the municipal level.