Local election

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Under local election means a political choice in local authorities as well as the districts of the city-states , ie, in particular in cities , towns or counties . The elections to representative bodies of regional associations , landscape associations or similar associations are also referred to as local elections , unless the representative bodies are determined indirectly.

The municipal elections serve to determine people's representatives in municipal municipal or city ​​councils or, in the case of direct elections, to elect the mayor or district administrator . In addition, representatives are elected in district assemblies , district days , district representatives or the like, as well as local advisory boards.

In conjunction with the local elections, there are often other elections (such as those for foreigners 'councils or senior citizens' councils ) and referendums .

Local suffrage

The local elections is part of the area of law municipal law , which governs the conduct of local elections. Functionally, it corresponds to state organization law at state level. A fringe area of ​​local electoral law is criminal law . Most of the time, election fraud is also a criminal offense in local elections.

The right to vote in local elections can differ from the right to vote for state bodies. In particular, the right to vote for foreigners only exists in local elections. Because of the limited subject matter of local law, local elections also allow groups of voters who are not parties to participate in the elections (so-called town hall parties ). Parties and groups of voters who are not represented in the relevant representative body, in the national parliament or in a state parliament, must usually be able to show support signatures in order to be allowed to vote.

Article 40 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union , which is part of European primary law according to Article 6 TEU , guarantees the right to vote and to vote for Union citizens at their current place of residence within the member states. Local electoral law is also the subject of transnational agreements such as the European Charter of Local Self-Government .

Local electoral law differs greatly from state to state and possibly from state to state. For the individual local electoral codes see:

Results of local elections

For the results of local elections, see the list of local election results . Turnout in local elections is usually lower than in parliamentary elections.

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Local elections  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations