List of political parties in Costa Rica

Costa Rica
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This article lists political parties in Costa Rica. Costa Rica used to have a two-party system, which meant that there were two dominant political parties, the Social Christian Unity Party and the National Liberation Party, with extreme difficulty for anybody to achieve electoral success under the banner of any other party. After the 2002 elections and the strong showing of the brand-new Citizens' Action Party, it was considered very likely that the old two-party system was on the verge of giving way to a multi-party system. Several other parties have gained prominence since then, and the 2006 elections made it clear that Costa Rica is now a multi-party system.

The parties

Parliamentary parties

Name			Ideology	Deputies
	National Liberation Party Partido Liberación Nacional	PLN	Social democracy	24
	Citizens' Action Party Partido Acción Ciudadana	PAC	Social democracy	11
	Libertarian Movement Party Partido Movimiento Libertario	PML	Libertarianism	9
	Social Christian Unity Party Partido de Unidad Socialcristiana	PUSC	Christian democracy	6
	Accessibility without Exclusion Accesibilidad sin Exclusión	PASE	Conservative	4
	Costa Rican Renovation Party Partido Renovación Costarricense	PRN	Christian conservative	1
	National Restoration Restauración Nacional	PASE	Christian conservative	1
	Broad Front Frente Amplio	FA	Socialism	1

Non-parliamentary parties

• National Integration Party

Defunct parties

• Democratic Force (Fuerza Democrática)
• Homeland First Party (Partido Patria Primero)
• National Integration Party (Partido Integración Nacional)
• Popular Vanguard Party (Partido Vanguardia Popular)
• Union for Change Party (Partido Unión para el Cambio)
• * National Unification Party, active 1966–1978

Provincial parties

• Alajuelense Democratic Action (Acción Democrática Alajuelense), Alajuela
• Agrarian Labour Action Party (Partido Acción Laborista Agrícola), Alajuela

Local parties

• Party of the Sun (Partido del Sol)

See also

• List of political parties