Editing Mario Echandi Jiménez (section)

== His presidency ==
President Echandi won the 1958 election by 102.851 votes as candidate of the [[National Union Party (Costa Rica)|National Union Party]]. Francisco J. Orlich was candidate of [[National Liberation Party (Costa Rica)|National Liberation Party]] with 94.778 and Jorge Rossi had 23.910 votes with the Independent Party. .<ref name="auto">Historía de Costa Rica, Monge Alfaro, Carlos. edición #16, Imprenta Trejos, 1980, page 304</ref> During his administration some important laws were passed. The "Ley de Aguinaldo" law gave an extra yearly salary to all workers. A law that created the national service for clean water was approved.<ref name="auto"/> The law that created a national institute for land reform and colonization. (ITCO law). The first national plan for transit and roads was created, to build a network of highways and roads in the country.<ref name="auto"/>