Costa Rican Renovation Party

Costa Rican Renovation Party
President	Justo Orozco Álvarez
Secretary-General	Jimmy Soto Solano
Founded	1995
Ideology	Conservatism Christian Democracy
Political position	Right-wing
Colours	Blue and White
Legislative Assembly	2 / 57
Politics of Costa Rica Political parties Elections

The Costa Rican Renovation Party (Spanish: Partido Renovación Costarricense) is a Christian political party in Costa Rica.

History

Established in 1995, the party first participated in national elections in 1998, when its presidential candidate, Sherman Thomas Jackson received 1.4% of the vote, whilst they won a single seat in the parliamentary elections, taken by pastor and lawyer Justo Orozco.

Orozco was the party's presidential candidate in 2002, finishing fifth with 1.1% of the vote. The party also retained its sole parliamentary seat in the elections, taken by Carlos Avendaño. However, Avendaño left the party and founded his own (National Restoration Party).

In the 2006 elections the party's candidate Bolivar Serrano Hidalgo won 3.4% of the vote in the presidential election, but the party lost its parliamentary seat (went to Avendaño's party). In 2010 elections, former Tibás mayor Mayra Gonzalez finished sixth in the presidential contest with 0.7%, but the party regained parliamentary representation, winning a solitary seat, taken by Orozco. Orozco was very polemic during his tenure especially because some of his public comments were accused of homophobia and because he was elected president of the Human Rights Commission of Parliament thanks to his alliance with then ruling PLN. Orozco was candidate again in 2014 gainning similar results (1% of the votes) yet obtainning 2 seats in Congress.

The party holds very conservative believes and is directed toward the evangelical Christian minority, opposing such subjects as abortion, same-sex marriage, Marijuana legalization and violent videogames.