Araya, who was mayor of San José since 2002 (and Municipal Executive, the figure that was his equivalent and was not popular election, since 1998) resigned his position to be a presidential candidate for the National Liberation Party in the national elections of 2014, being defeated. Unable to aspire to be candidate on his own party since the Ethics Tribunal suspended him for questioning his conduct during the campaign, Araya registered his candidacy through the cantonal party Alianza por San José.
In other parties the election of the candidate was also controversial. The Cantonal Assembly of the governing Citizens' Action Party elected as candidate alderman Daguer Alberto Hernandez Vasquez, however, his candidacy was not initially ratified by the National Assembly. The nomination was ratified in a second Cantonal Assembly for which the Citizen Action Party finally endorsed it.[3][4] In the Social Christian Unity Party there were two precandidates: the ex-deputy Jorge Eduardo Sánchez Sibaja and Douglas Quesada Altamirano (who had previously been a candidate for mayor by the Libertarian Movement), however, Altamirano ran for the Social Christian Republican Party, a splinter of the PUSC founded by dissident Calderonismo and which has the backing of former President Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier.[5]
In the National Liberation Party, Guido Granados, husband of then interim mayor Sandra Garcia, was elected mayoral nominee with 60 votes out of 95 of the Cantonal Assembly in a second vote after obtaining 48 votes in the first count, insufficient to be elected. The remaining votes were obtained by the ex-deputy Óscar Alfaro. The other aspirants the former vice minister Luis Álvarez and the vice-mayor Gonzalo Ramírez were out of the second round.[6][7]
Former Ombudsman, deputy and twice presidential candidate (in 2006 by the National Union Party and in 2014 by the National Advance Party) José Manuel Echandi Meza ran for the National Integration Party.[8][9]
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