1917 Costa Rican general election

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 1 April 1917.^[1] General Federico Tinoco Granados had illegally seized power in a military coup that January and stood as the sole candidate in the presidential election. The elections were widely regarded as fraudulent, with Tinoco as the only official candidate. Although former president Rafael Yglesias Castro received 259 votes,^[2] they were recorded as invalid ballots.^[3]

Tinoco’s regime enjoyed the support of the intellectual elite, as well as the coffee and banking oligarchy, sectors that had been negatively impacted by the reforms of President Alfredo González Flores. He also counted on the backing of key political figures, including (at least initially) Republican Party leader Máximo Fernández Alvarado and journalist Otilio Ulate Blanco.^[4] The Army, commanded by Tinoco’s brother José Joaquín Tinoco Granados, initially offered him unconditional loyalty.^[4] The regime garnered significant popular support early on, with a pro-Tinoquista demonstration on 18 March 1917 drawing an estimated 25,000 participants across San José.^[4]

Following the coup, Tinoco called for presidential and legislative elections to form a National Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution, mirroring the approach of previous regimes born from coups in 1859, 1869 and 1871. The elections were conducted under the existing Electoral Law, maintaining the same number of deputies (42) and provincial distribution as the previous Constitutional Congress. The ruling party won all but two seats in the Assembly, allowing conservative sympathizers such as Ulate and Otto Cortés Fernández (son of future president León Cortés) to participate.^[4]