TSE reforms party structure regulations and sets renewal deadlines

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal reformed articles 2, 3, 5, 10, 16, 18, and 21 of the Regulations for the Formation and Renewal of Party Structures, Scale Transformation, and Oversight of Assemblies through Decree No. 4-2026. The regulation, published in La Gaceta No. 180 on Thursday, September 24, 2026 (pp. 40-42), establishes renewal deadlines, gender parity, and oversight rules for all political groupings. It takes effect from its publication in the Official Gazette.

The electoral body acted based on ordinals 9, paragraph three, 99, and 102 of the Political Constitution and numeral 12, subsection a), of the Electoral Code. In the recitals, it indicates that it was necessary to regulate the calculation of the quorum for party assemblies, the deadline to conclude the structure renewal process, the authority to request the cancellation of assemblies, the submission of notarized minutes, and the notification to groupings declared inactive. The decree was issued in San José on the nineteenth day of the month of August, two thousand twenty-six, and signed by the presiding magistrate Eugenia María Zamora Chavarría, the vice-president magistrate Max Alberto Esquivel Faerron, and magistrate Zetty María Bou Valverde.

Gender Parity and Mandatory Internal Structure

The new article 2 obliges parties to have within their internal structure the bodies established in Chapter IV of the Electoral Code:

• Territorial assemblies according to the scale of the political grouping.
• An executive committee with its alternates and an oversight office for each territorial assembly.
• An ethics and discipline tribunal with its respective appellate instance.
• An internal elections tribunal.
• The minimum composition of these tribunals shall be three members.

Parties may complement their structure with additional bodies and increase the number of territorial delegates, provided that the increase is implemented equally across all assemblies in the constituency; an additional delegate who also serves as a territorial delegate will be counted only once for quorum purposes. All appointments must be made by secret ballot.

Article 3 enshrines the principle of gender parity: even-numbered structures shall be composed of 50% women and 50% men, and in odd-numbered structures, the difference between the total number of men and women may not exceed one. Parity must be guaranteed for both the titular members and the alternates of the body.

Renewal Deadlines and Oversight of Assemblies

Article 5 prohibits holding a cantonal assembly and its district assemblies, a provincial assembly and its cantonal assemblies, or the national assembly and its provincial assemblies on the same date, as well as two assemblies of the same scale in the same constituency even if they have different agendas. A period of no less than eight business days must elapse between these assemblies when the agreements of the lower assembly may influence the next. The renewal process must be completed within two years following its start, a period that runs from the call for the first assembly; if the group does not complete the renewal within that timeframe, it must start the process anew.

Article 10 requires that requests for oversight be managed solely through the digital forms of the General Directorate of the Electoral Registry and Political Party Financing, via the Electronic Services Platform for Political Parties, at least five business days prior to the assembly. Requests submitted outside of this timeframe or on different forms shall be deemed not submitted and will be rejected outright.

Article 16 establishes that parties wishing to participate in presidential, legislative, or municipal elections must have completed the renewal of their internal bodies within the six months prior to election day. In exceptional cases, the Electoral Administration may grant an additional month, with completion within the five months prior. Parties declared inactive that intend to participate must begin the integration of their new structures no later than one year before the voting, under penalty of being unable to present candidacies.

Minutes, inactivity, and reactivation of parties

Article 18 mandates the drafting of minutes for all party assemblies, including the aspects discussed and the detail of the agreements adopted. Minutes of superior assemblies shall be recorded in the books of Article 57 of the Electoral Code, and those corresponding to the acts of numeral 56 must be submitted certified to the Department of Political Party Registration. Groups in the process of formation and assemblies called by one-fourth of their members must submit notarized minutes.

Article 21 provides that, after one year has passed since the expiration of its structures without actions to renew assemblies and internal bodies, the grouping may be declared inactive by resolution of the General Directorate of the Electoral Registry and Political Party Financing, published once in the Official Gazette. The declaration does not imply the cancellation of the registration entry, but it suspends the notification of decisions of general scope, the duty to present financial statements (articles 132 and 135 of the Electoral Code), and the possibility of receiving contributions in the single account of article 127. To be considered active again, the party must prove the complete appointment of the new superior executive committee; if all its members resigned or are not interested, an assembly of at least fifty interested parties shall appoint provisional authorities.

The reform organizes the internal rules of the game for parties just before a new electoral cycle, by setting peremptory renewal deadlines, requiring gender parity in structures, and tightening the oversight of assemblies. Groupings that do not meet the deadlines are exposed to the declaration of inactivity and the impossibility of presenting candidacies, while the Supreme Electoral Tribunal concentrates the control of the entire process in digital forms and in the Electoral Registry.

Source: La Gaceta No. 180, Thursday, September 24, 2026, pgs. 40-42 (official reference: IN202601125576).