Elections in Delkora

Elections in Delkora take place at the federal, state, and local levels.

Electoral system

Eligibility to vote

Voter eligibility is governed by federal law and applies to all elections. To be eligible to vote in Delkora, one must be:

• A Delkoran citizen
• At least 17 years old on Election Day
• A current or former resident of Delkora

Dates

Election Day is always a holiday, and traditionally occurs on a Monday. At the federal level, elections must occur at least every four years, with the exact date being set by the Cabinet within a range specified by law. Snap elections are possible if a government loses a confidence vote and a new government cannot be formed within 10 days, or if at least 2/3 of the Chamber of Representatives vote to dissolve Parliament.

State election dates are governed by state law, although beginning in 1968, all seven states agreed to begin synchronizing their elections, which now traditionally occur on the first Monday in June. Additionally, because all states have adopted provisions in their constitutions over the years barring snap elections, state parliaments always serve their full four year terms. Municipal elections are held concurrently with state elections.

Voting method

Federal elections are conducted using party-list proportional representation with open lists. Seat allocation is determined using the D'Hondt method. When casting a ballot, the voter selects a political party and may cast a single vote for either the party itself, or for a particular candidate on its list. Candidates from a list are seated based on their share of the personal votes, with the party's initial ranking serving only as a potential tie-breaker. To be eligible for seats in a given constituency, a party has to meet an electoral threshold of 5%.

Elections for state parliaments are all conducted using some variation of proportional representation.

All elections utilize paper ballots with optical scan voting systems. Early voting, including postal voting, is allowed for 30 days prior to Election Day. On election day itself, polls are open from 6:00am to 10:00pm.

Constituencies

Chamber of Representatives constituencies are established by the Federal Electoral Commission, and their boundaries are fixed by law. Some are geographically large, spanning several counties, while others cover only part of a single municipality in the case of large metropolitan areas. Reapportionment occurs every ten years following a federal census. There is approximately one federal MP for every 185,000 people.

For state parliament elections, constituencies generally correspond to counties and large municipalities.

Campaigns

For federal elections, the campaign season is defined as the 30 days prior to Election Day. All official campaign events, including canvassing, rallies, and television, radio, and newspaper ads, are limited to this time frame, with hefty fines levied against violators. Additionally, a period of election silence is observed on Election Day itself and the preceding day.

Campaigns are funded by a combination of public and private sources. Parties can become eligible for subsidies based on the average of their vote totals for the previous two federal elections, with a higher average translating into a larger subsidy. To be eligible for a subsidy, a party's average must be at least 5%. Parties receiving subsidies are allowed to charge membership dues, but these cannot exceed ⊻25 per person per year, and they are not permitted to accept donations. Parties not receiving subsidies can charge membership dues of up to ⊻250 per year and are allowed to accept individual donations of up to ⊻1,500. Donations can only be made by individuals.

Federal elections

The Chamber of Representatives, the lower house of the bicameral Federal Parliament, consists of 500 MPs elected for four year terms. After the election, the monarch grants an exploratory mandate to the leader of the largest party to attempt to form a government. Because of the practice of negotiating electoral alliances prior to elections, it is usually clear which parties will constitute the government. If this is not the case, parties have 30 days to reach an agreement. Failure to form a government by this deadline automatically triggers a new election.