By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff

With many glumly predicting dismal voter turnout during the Dec. 3 municipal elections, analysts and electoral officials gathered yesterday at the Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) in San José to discuss ways to improve not only the voting process, but also municipal governments as a whole.

The speakers, including a national legislator, several analysts and others familiar with municipal government, emphasized the importance of increasing local control in Costa Rica, the most centralized country in Latin America, according to Fabio Molina, president of the Institute for Municipal Development (IFAM). Molina said that although the press focuses on low voter interest in the upcoming election, the level of interest is actually quite remarkable, given that municipalities account for only 1.7% of total public spending.

In the first-ever popular elections of mayors in 2002, the abstention level was 77.4% — but taking into account null and blank ballots, only 21% of the 2.3 million registered Costa Rican voters cast valid votes. Carlos Sojo, of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO), told The Tico Times in 2002 that the disappointing turnout “was like a class officer election at a university” and that parties would have to work hard to inspire voters if the next municipal elections were to show better results (TT, Dec. 6, 2002).

TSE magistrate Eugenia Zamora said at the forum that municipal governments are in a state of “permanent crisis,” with problems including difficulties in collecting municipal taxes and the lack of state contribution to political parties for municipal campaigns (unlike presidential and legislative campaigns). Many reforms have been proposed, but an excess of varied proposals has caused backup in the Legislative Assembly, Zamora said.

The forum was part of the “Dialogue About Well-Being” series sponsored by FLACSO, the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.