Elections in San Marino

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In San Marino there are elections to the parliament , the Consiglio Grande e Generale and the municipal councils, the Giunte de Castelli . There are also referendums and initiatives.

Parliamentary elections

San Marino has a unicameral parliament , the Consiglio Grande e Generale. The number of deputies (consiglieri) is 60. The legislature lasts five years, but early parliamentary elections are quite frequent.

All San Marinese nationals who have reached the age of eighteen on election day are eligible to vote. This also applies to San Marines living abroad. Excluded from the right to vote are persons who have been incapacitated due to mental illness, as well as persons who have been sentenced to imprisonment or deprivation of the right to vote for specific offenses.

All citizens who have reached the age of twenty-first and have a place of residence in San Marino are eligible. Judges, the Procuratore del Fisco, diplomats and members of the gendarmeria, police and the Guardia di Roccaa have no right to stand. Membership in the Consiglio Grande e Generale is incompatible with a number of functions: membership in the leadership of a trade union, a professional association, the administrative or supervisory body of the central bank, public institutions, as well as the chairmen of banking institutions and sports associations and the members of the executive committee of the national Olympic Committee Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Sammarinese and the members of some security forces. Furthermore, spouses or partners in a civil partnership, as well as parents or children of a member of parliament, may not belong to the parliament.

The deputies are determined in a representative election list . Each electoral list comprises between 12 and 60 members, must be supported by at least 90 eligible voters, and each must comprise at least one third of men and women (quota rosa) . Lists can form coalitions; individual candidates are not possible.

Voting will take place on election Sunday at the polling station; postal votes are not possible. There are polling stations in some San Marines communities for overseas San Marines. The hospital has its own polling station.

A list or a coalition is elected. In addition, voters have the option of ticking a candidate. The election winner is the coalition that has at least 30 seats or a majority of the votes. If this is not the case for any coalition, there will be a runoff election (ballottaggio) two weeks later between the two first-placed coalitions. There is a blocking clause of 0.4% times the number of candidate lists, but a maximum of 3.5%. The distribution of seats is determined using the D'Hondt method . The victorious coalition is entitled to at least 35 of the 60 seats (premio di stabilità) . The distribution within the lists is based on the number of votes that the candidates have. In the event of a member leaving, the next member of the list with the most votes moves up.

The victorious coalition is obliged to form the government from its MPs. During the legislative period, parties from other coalitions cannot join the government. The mandate of a minister (Gegretario di Stato) is suspended during his membership in the government, but another member moves up. When leaving the government, the ex-minister will take his seat in parliament again.

history

San Marino describes itself as the oldest republic in the world. The legislation was originally administered by the Arengo , the council of heads of families. Over time, the Arengo gradually transferred its powers to the Council of 60 (Congilio dei LX) , which was founded in the 14th century. The council developed into an oligarchy, from about 1600 the members were determined for life by co-optation . As a result of an economic crisis and social rebellion for democratic rule, the Arengo was convened again in 1906 for the first time in several centuries.

The Arengo decided to abolish the previous system, the members of the Consiglio Grande e Generale were elected in the future. The male heads of families and academics were entitled to vote. Clerics were excluded from voting. At the beginning, the MPs were elected for nine years. Every three years a third of the MPs were re-elected. However, this resulted in frequent elections due to many anomalies in the elections and numerous resignations. In 1909 the right to vote was extended to all men 21 and older. These were multi-mandate constituencies, each of the initially nine, later ten, parishes (Parrocchie) had a number of representatives depending on the number of inhabitants.

In 1920 a new electoral law came into force, the entire parliament was elected for four years. The whole country formed a constituency, and lists were voted for. In addition, up to six members could be given one vote. The distribution of votes was based on the D'Hondt method. In 1923 the fascist Partito Fascista Sammarinese (PFS) came to power. The legislative period was extended to six years, male heads of families, academics, members of the military and people whose taxes exceeded a certain threshold were eligible to vote.

After the fall and dissolution of the PFS, they returned to the old suffrage. After the conflict in Rovereta in 1957, the now ruling Christian Democrats modified the right to vote. Women were given the right to vote for the first time in the 1964 parliamentary elections, and citizens living abroad were able to vote by postal vote from 1959. The legislative period was extended to five years. In the course of equality for women in 1974, women were also given the right to stand as candidates.

In 1996 there was an electoral reform. The postal vote for citizens living abroad was abolished again, the passive right to vote only had people domiciled in Germany. The criteria for exclusion from the right to vote have been clarified and the incompatibility of parliamentary membership of spouses and children has been introduced. The age for the active right to vote was reduced to 18, for the passive right to vote to 21. Voters could vote for up to six candidates, cumulating and variegating was not possible. In 1997 the number of individual votes was reduced to three.

With the electoral reform of 2007, the threshold clause, the quota rossa , and the premo di stabilità were introduced. In 2016, the number of votes was limited to one candidate.

literature

  • Wilfried Marxer, Zoltán Tibór Pallinger: The political systems of Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican. In: Wolfgang Ismayr (Ed.): The political systems of Western Europe. 4th edition. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-531-16464-9 . Pp. 936-945.
  • Christian Baukhage: San Marino. In: Dieter Nohlen , Philip Stöver (Eds.): Elections in Europe. A data handbook. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2010, ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7 , pp. 1669-1698.

Web links