Elections in Luxembourg
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Elections in Luxembourg are held to determine the political composition of the representative institutions of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a liberal representative democracy, with universal suffrage guaranteed under the constitution. Elections are held regularly, and are considered to be fair and free.
Separate elections are held to elect representatives at national, communal, and European levels. The main institution to which members are elected is the Chamber of Deputies, the national legislature and the sole source of membership, confidence, and supply of the government. Luxembourg is represented by six MEPs to the European Parliament, who are elected simultaneously with elections held in other European Union member states.
The country has a multi-party system, traditionally defined by the existence of three large political parties: the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), the Democratic Party (DP), and the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP). Historically, the three parties have won a large majority of the votes between them, but their total percentage has fallen recently, such that two additional parties, the Greens and the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) have recorded over 9% of votes at each of last two legislative elections. The CSV (and its predecessor) has provided the Prime Minister for all but six years since 1918, and has always been the largest party in the legislature. In this respect, Luxembourg has certain features of a dominant-party system, although coalition governments are the norm.
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[edit] Chamber of Deputies
Luxembourg's national legislature is the unicameral Chamber of Deputies (Luxembourgish Châmber vun Députéirten, French: Chambre des députés, German: Abgeordnetenkammer). The Chamber has 60 members, known as 'deputies', elected for a five-year term in four multi-seat constituencies, known as 'circonscriptions'. Seats are allocated by proportional representation, using the Hagenbach-Bischoff system. Voting is compulsory for all voters on the electoral register.[1]
[edit] Eligibility
To be eligible to vote in elections to the Chamber of Deputies, one must fulfil the following criteria:
- One must be a Luxembourgian citizen.
- One must be eighteen years of age on election day.
- One must never have been convicted of a criminal offence.
- One must otherwise be in full possession of one's political rights (e.g. not be certified as insane).
In addition to the criteria outlined above, to stand for election to the Chamber of Deputies, one must be resident in Luxembourg. Furthermore, one cannot be a candidate if one is a judge or a member of the Council of State.[1]
[edit] Circonscriptions
Deputies are elected from four constituencies ('circonscriptions'). They are arranged geographically, as combinations of the twelve traditional cantons. The four circonscriptions are Centre, Est, Nord, Sud.[1]
As the constituencies are based on geographic region and traditional borders, they have greatly differing populations. To reflect this, each circonscription elects a different number of deputies; Sud, with 40% of the national population, elects twenty-three deputies, whilst Est, with only 12% of the population, elects seven. Voters can cast as many votes as their circonscription elects deputies (so, in Est, one can vote for up to seven candidates), which can be spread across party lists or concentrated behind one single party.[1]
[edit] Latest election
The CSV's large margin of victory guaranteed that it would form the government once again, with Jean-Claude Juncker appointed as formateur and likely to rename as Prime Minister. Before the election, Juncker, Europe's longest-serving head of government, had told his party that he intended to step down as Minister for Finances, to be replaced by Luc Frieden.[3] This brought into question his chairmanship of the Europe-wide Eurogroup, which he had chaired since 2005. However, he has since stated that he would remain in charge of monetary policy and relations with the European Central Bank.[4]
The CSV is in a strong enough position to form a coalition with any one of three parties: LSAP (partner in the Juncker-Asselborn Ministry), the DP (partner in the Juncker-Polfer Ministry), and the Greens (who have never entered the government). However, the DP and Greens have both ruled out the possibility of a coalition with the CSV, leaving only the previous coalition partners, LSAP, in the running.[5]
| Party | Votes | %[a] | Change | Seats | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christian Social People's Party | 1,129,368 | 38.0 | +1.9 | 26 | +2 | |
| Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party | 695,830 | 21.5 | –1.9 | 13 | –1 | |
| Democratic Party | 432,820 | 15.0 | –1.1 | 9 | –1 | |
| The Greens | 347,388 | 11.7 | +0.1 | 7 | 0 | |
| Alternative Democratic Reform Party | 232,744 | 8.1 | –1.9 | 4 | –1 | |
| The Left | 109,184 | 3.3 | +1.4 | 1 | +1 | |
| Communist Party | 49,108 | 1.4 | +0.5 | 0 | – | |
| Citizens' List | 28,512 | 0.8 | – | 0 | New | |
| Invalid/blank votes | 13,322 | – | – | – | – | |
| Total | 203,535 | 100 | – | 60 | 0 | |
| Registered voters/turnout | 223,842 | 90.9 | – | – | – | |
| Source: Nohlen & Stöver[2] | ||||||
a The percentage of votes is not related to the number of votes in the table, as voters could cast more votes in some constituencies than others, and is instead calculated based on the proportion of votes received in each constituency.[3]
[edit] Past elections
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[edit] European Parliament
Since 1979, Luxembourg has elected members to the European Parliament,[1] which is the primary representative organ of the EU, and, with the Council of the European Union, forms its legislative branch. Due to its small size, the Grand Duchy elects just six members out of a total of 732, which is more than only Malta (which elects five MEPs); nonetheless, Luxembourg's representation is disproportionately large compared to its population, and Luxembourg elects more MEPs per capita than any other country (see: Apportionment in the European Parliament).
MEPs are elected to five-year terms. The exact date of elections is decided by Luxembourg, allowing it to schedule them on the same date as elections to the Chamber of Deputies (as is usually the case).[1]
[edit] Eligibility
To be eligible to vote in elections to the European Parliament, one must fulfil the following criteria:
- One must be a citizen of the European Union.
- One must be eighteen years of age on election day.
- One must never have been convicted of a criminal offence.
- One must otherwise be in full possession of one's political rights (e.g. not be certified as insane) in one's own country of citizenship (Luxembourg or another member state).
- If not a Luxembourgian citizen, must have been resident in Luxembourg for at least five of the past six years when enrolling on the electoral register.[1]
In addition to the criteria outlined above, to stand for election to the European Parliament, one must be resident in Luxembourg. There are also extra requirements if one is a non-Luxembourgian citizen, in which case, one must be in full possession of one's political rights in both Luxembourg and one's country of citizenship (if not a Luxembourgian national), and have resided in Luxembourg for the past five years (and not just five of the past six).[1]
[edit] Latest election
[edit] Past elections
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f g h "About... Political Institutions" (PDF). Service Information et Presse. February 2004. http://www.eu2005.lu/en/savoir_lux/lux_publications/about_institutions/about_institutions.pdf. Retrieved 2006-08-06.
- ^ Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p2051 ISBN 9873832956097
- ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p1254
[edit] External links
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