Elections in Walneria
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The Confederacy of Walneria is a constitutional republic with regular elections for many offices and assemblies. Every citizen aged 18 years at the second day of the election is eligible to vote in all elections. Citizens of Walneria have the right to vote in the elections for:
- National Assembly
- President
- Regional council or autonomous parliament in the region they are a permanent resident of
- County council if they are a resident in one of the Special Counties in Walneria or the Consular assembly if they reside abroad
- Municipal council in the municipality they are a permanent resident of
- Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Democratically-Aligned Nations
Elections are usually coupled, with the regional elections, county elections and municipal elections taking place at the same time.
Timing
Elections are held over the period of two days, starting on 14:00 on Friday and ending on 22:00 on Saturday with a gap over the night from Friday to Saturday between 22:00 and 6:00.
Elections into regional, county and municipal councils is set by law to be the first possible term in August with the terms starting on September 1st.
Elections into the National Assembly and the Grand National Assembly must be held at the soonest 90 days before and at the latest 90 days following the end of the term of the previous convocation, with the term starting with the first session of the new convocation, but no later than 28 days following the election. During the time when the National Assembly is dissolved, the President, in cooperation with the special committee of 20 members elected by the outgoing National Assembly has limited legislative rights, allowing them to pass simple legal provisions which expire if they are not approved on the first session of the new convocation of the National Assembly.
If the National Assembly is dissolved before the end of its term, the elections must be held 90 days before the dissolution at the latest.
Elections into the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of the Democratically-aligned nations of Argis are always held in conjunction with the elections into the National Assembly/the Grand National Assembly.
Elections of the President are scheduled by the President of the National Assembly so that the first round takes place 30 days before the end of the previous' president's term at the latest, with the primary election scheduled to be held from Monday to Friday of the next week in a time window so that there are at least 10 days left before the two pollings for campaigning and distribution of finalized ballot papers.
National Councils of the settlement areas are elected for 4 year terms, but the election days are decided by the respective head of the autonomy and not central organs as long as they take place over a period of two days starting on Friday.
National Assembly
National Assembly is elected once every 4 years for 4 year terms. The right to be elected has every citizen aged at least 21 on the second day of the election. A total of 130 seats are elected using a proportional system. Early elections can be called, if:
- The President dissolves the National Assembly because it failed to convene at least once every three months
- The National Assembly dissolved with a 3/5 majority vote
- One or more people in the Presidium is convicted of treason, sabotage, espionage, war crimes, crimes against the teritorial integrity of Walneria, crimes against democracy and/or crimes against humanity
Following the 2023 electoral law referendum, the parties have the right to decide on which of the three permissible principles are they going to follow for the election (but they can choose at most one):
- A single party list at large with no more than 130 candidates
- Regional party lists in the 9 regions and 2 settlement areas with no more than a floor function of the 1.5 × number of candidates that would proportionally be apportioned to the said electoral regions under equal turnout in all electoral regions, but not less than 5 candidates total
- Regional party lists with the same rules and local party lists in the Special counties with no more than a floor function of the 1.5 × number of candidates that would proportionally be apportioned to the said electoral county under equal turnout in all electoral regions and counties, but not less than 2 candidates total
Seats are apportioned to each party based on the at large result using D'Hondt method, but seats are apportioned only to those parties which crossed the electoral threshold. Seats are then apportioned between electoral constituencies within every party that opted for regional and/or local lists using Sainte-Laguë method. Both the Ustokan minority and the Malenik minority have reserved at least 6 seats through the Minority Caucus.
There are multiple electoral thresholds, where at least one must be met in order to enter the National Assembly:
| Type of candidate | Threshold | |
|---|---|---|
| Single party | 4% at large | 8% in at least 3 regions |
| Alliance of 2 parties | 6% at large | 12% in at least 3 regions |
| Alliance of 3 parties | 8% at large | 16% in at least 3 regions |
| Alliance of 4 or more parties | 10% at large | 20% in at least 3 regions |
| Party representing a national minority | No threshold for the first seat, then to every other same as for a single party | |
| Independent candidate | ~0.769% at large[1] | |
The Constitution of Walneria demands, that at least 3 subjects (excluding minority parties unless they cross the threshold and independent politicians) be represented in the National Assembly, so if less than three parties cross the threshold, the thresholds are lowered until at least three parties have seats in the National Assembly. At-large thresholds are lowered by the same amount and thresholds on the regional level are lowered by an amount that is double that of the at-large threshold for each of the respective subject.
Moreover, the Constitution provides for a emergency break mechanism, where if a single running subject recieves 3/5 of seats or more, more seats are added for other parties to the convocation until they are proportionally just below the 3/5 threshold. This provision was introduced to ensure, that even if a party wins a supermajority, they do not have alone the power to impeach the President or influence the Constitutional Court. This has never happened in Walnerian history.
Party lists are semi-open and voters get to select a number of candidates using approval voting. During the election, votes are tallied and any candidate that recieves at least 1.5/𝓃 preferrential votes (where 𝓃 is the number of candidates on the list) gets to skip the order in which they appear and are placed on top. Any and all candidates that manage to skip the set-out order are then ordered by the total number of preferrential votes on top of the party list.
All independent candidates are listed on a ballot paper. When voting for an independent candidate, the voter marks the respective candidate (and only that single candidate) on the ballot paper as if it was a preferrential vote. After the votes are counted, the number of independent candidates that gets elected is determined by the multiples of the Hare quota that was given to independent list (i.e 1/130 of all votes for a single independent politician, 1/130 for two etc.). The respective candidates elected into the National Assembly are then selected from among the list using the preferrential votes by a system of single non-transferable vote.
Grand National Assembly
The election to the Grand National Assembly takes place once every 5 convocations of the National Assembly. A total of 250 members are elected in two rounds. Of those, 50 members are elected in single-member districts, while the remaining 200 are elected in multi-party districts.
Majoritarian election
50 members are elected in single member districts using a modified two round system.
In the first round, which takes place at the same time as the first round of the proportional election, voters choose from all candidates qualified to run for the election in the specific district they vote in using cumulative voting. The two highest rankind candidates continue to the second round, others are eliminated (but if there is a tie, every candidate tying for the first or second place continues to the second round).
In the second round, which takes place at the same time as the second round of the proportional election, each voter casts a single vote and the candidate with the most votes wins. If there is a tie, votes from the first round are added to the total. If the tie remains, then a lot is drawn to determine the winner.
Proportional election
200 members are elected using a system similar to that of the National Assembly, but using a modified two-round system.
In the first round, which takes place at the same time as the first round of the majoritarian election, all parties are running for 100 seats (1/2 of the proportional seats) using the same system as for the ordinary National Assembly, except that instead of 130 seats, only 100 are elected. Any party that crosses the electoral threshold qualifies to run in the second round, but any party that failed to meet it is disqualified from running. The rationale behind this is, that every voter should have the option to have at least one of the two votes they may potentially cast counted, and allowing parties that failed to qualify in the first election into the second may not allow it.
In the second round, which takes place at the same time as the second round of the majoritarian election, all qualified parties from the first round are running for the other 100 seats (1/2 of the proportional seats). This time, there is not electoral threshold, as all the running parties already qualified, but other than that, the system is identical to that of the first round.
In every round, the Ustokan and the Malenik minority have 5 seats reserved each.
President
The President of Walneria is elected using a modified two round system, which is by some scholars considered an impure three round system.
In order to qualify, candidates have to meet the following criteria:
- Be at least 40 years of age on the second day of the first round of the election
- Be a citizen of Walneria for at least 15 years
- Not be declared insane by a court of law
- Have spent at least 15 years since the last incarceration
- Be nominated in one of the following ways:
- Through a petition verifyingly signed by at least 50,000 citizens of Walneria
- Through a success in the primary elections
- By a nomination by at least 15 deputies of the National Assembly
- By being a former president who is still eligible to run
- By a nomination by a National Council of a settlement area
Primary elections
The voting begins with the primary election, usually held during a span of two weeks about two months before the first round of the actual election. Voters have the right to enter the municipal or city council in the place they reside in and request to cast votes for "primary candidates". At the same time, voters can request a "voter's permit", a temporary identification that qualifies the voter to vote outside of their usual polling station (removing them from the list of registered voters in the said area for the election and allowing them to cast their vote using the permit in a different polling station).
Voters select one or more of the candidates through the system of single non-transferable vote, any candidate that manages to gain the support of at least 5% of all eligible voters as of the last day of the two week polling period qualifies to run for the election.
Main elections
The main round of elections is held using a basic law over the period of two days. In the first round, voters vote for a single candidate using a system of single non-transferable vote, with the two most successful candidates continuing into the second round, which takes place on Friday and Saturday two weeks from the first round.
A candidate can be elected in the first round, if:
- They outright get more than 50% votes
- They get more than 45% of the votes and the second highest-polling candidate has at most 30% of the votes
More than two candidates tying for the first two places, all of the tying candidates continue into the second round, if the tie remains after a recount. Due to this, elections are delayed by two weeks. If one of the continuing candidates loses the eligibility to run, the next highest-ranking continues into the second round, which is delayed by two weeks.
In the second round, the candidate with most votes wins. If there is a tie, a recount is ordered. If even after a recount the tie remains, a lot is drawn to determine the winner.
Regional councils
TBA
County councils
TBA
Municipal councils
TBA
Referendums
TBA
Parliamentary Assembly of CDAN
TBA
See also
- Politics of Walneria
- Government of Walneria
- National Assembly of Walneria
- Special Counties in Walneria
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- ↑ This value is calculated as the number of votes divided by the number of seats, i.e. 1/130 of all votes. 130)100% is equal to roughly 0.769%, i.e. the Hare quota