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2007 Cantabrian Regional Election
The 2007 Cantabrian regional election was held on Sunday, 27 May 2007, to elect the 7th Parliament of the autonomous community of Cantabria. All 39 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in 12 other autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain. Overview Electoral system The Parliament of Cantabria was the devolved, unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Cantabria, having legislative power in regional matters as defined by the Spanish Constitution and the Cantabrian Statute of Autonomy, as well as the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a President of the Autonomous Community. Voting for the Parliament was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Cantabria and in full enjoyment of their political rights. The 39 members of the Parliament of Cantabria were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parliament Of Cantabria
The Parliament of Cantabria, is the unicameral legislature of the Autonomous Community of Cantabria. It consists of 35 members called "deputies" which are freely elected by the citizens of the region. The Parliament convenes at the Saint Raphael Hospital, an 18th century building in the City of Santander rehabilitated in the 1980s to house the Regional Assembly. Prior to 1998, the Parliament was called Regional Assembly of Cantabria. The Regionalist Party of Cantabria is the largest party in parliament, with 14 of the 35 deputies, followed by the People's Party with 9 and the Socialist Party with 7. Other minor parties are Citizens with 3 deputies and Vox with 2. The Regionalist Party governs currently the region in coalition with the Socialist Party. Elections and voting The number of seats in the Parliament of Cantabria is set to a fixed-number of 35. All Parliament members are elected to a four-year term in a single multi-member district, consisting of the Community's te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unicameral Legislature
Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multicameralism (two or more chambers). Many multicameral legislatures were created to give separate voices to different sectors of society. Multiple houses allowed, for example, for a guaranteed representation of different social classes (as in the Parliament of the United Kingdom or the French States-General). Sometimes, as in New Zealand and Denmark, unicameralism comes about through the abolition of one of two bicameral chambers, or, as in Sweden, through the merger of the two chambers into a single one, while in others a second chamber has never existed from the beginning. Rationale for unicameralism and criticism The principal advantage of a unicameral system is more efficient lawmaking, as the legislative process is simpler and there is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Absolute Majority
A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority rules in a democracy can help to prevent a majority from eroding fundamental rights of a minority, but they can also hamper efforts to respond to problems and encourage corrupt compromises in the times action is taken. Changes to constitutions, especially those with entrenched clauses, commonly require supermajority support in a legislature. Parliamentary procedure requires that any action of a deliberative assembly that may alter the rights of a minority have a supermajority requirement, such as a two-thirds vote. Related concepts regarding alternatives to the majority vote requirement include a majority of the entire membership and a majority of the fixed membership. A supermajority can also be specified based on the entire membership or f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legislative Session
A legislative session is the period of time in which a legislature, in both parliamentary and presidential systems, is convened for purpose of lawmaking, usually being one of two or more smaller divisions of the entire time between two elections. In each country the procedures for opening, ending, and in between sessions differs slightly. A session may last for the full term of the legislature or the term may consist of a number of sessions. These may be of fixed duration, such as a year, or may be used as a parliamentary procedural device. A session of the legislature is brought to an end by an official act of prorogation. In either event, the effect of prorogation is generally the clearing of all outstanding matters before the legislature. Common procedure Historically, each session of a parliament would last less than one year, ceasing with a prorogation during which legislators could return to their constituencies. In more recent times, development in transportation technolog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motion Of No Confidence
A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or management is still deemed fit to hold that position, such as because they are inadequate in some aspect, fail to carry out their obligations, or make decisions that other members feel to be detrimental. The parliamentary motion demonstrates to the head of government that the elected Parliament either has or no longer has confidence in one or more members of the appointed government. In some countries, a no-confidence motion being passed against an individual minister requires the minister to resign. In most cases, if the minister in question is the premier, all other ministers must also resign. A censure motion is different from a no-confidence motion. Depending on the constitution of the body concerned, "no confidence" may lead to the dism ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snap Election
A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to decide a pressing issue, under circumstances when an election is not required by law or convention. A snap election differs from a recall election in that it is initiated by politicians (usually the head of government or ruling party) rather than voters, and from a by-election in that a completely new parliament is chosen as opposed to merely filling vacancies in an already established assembly. Early elections can also be called in certain jurisdictions after a ruling coalition is dissolved if a replacement coalition cannot be formed within a constitutionally set time limit. Since the power to call snap elections (the dissolution of parliament) usually lies with the incumbent, they often result in increased majorities for the party alread ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2003 Cantabrian Regional Election
The 2003 Cantabrian regional election was held on Sunday, 25 May 2003, to elect the 6th Parliament of the autonomous community of Cantabria. All 39 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in 12 other autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain. Both the People's Party (PP) and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) lost 1 seat each to the Regionalist Party of Cantabria (PRC), which won 8 seats. As neither had won an absolute majority, the PRC reinforced its position as parliamentary kingmaker, able to give the government to either of the two parties. The PRC, in a coalition with the PP since 1995, announced that it was not renewing the pact a third time due to "deteriorating relations" between both parties after 8 years of government, and that it would instead seek an alliance with the PSOE. As a result of the election, PSOE and PRC reached a coalition agreement in which Miguel Ángel Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grouping Of Electors
According to the Spanish electoral law, a grouping of electors (Spanish: ''agrupación de electores'') is a group of citizens temporarily associated with the goal of presenting a candidature to a particular election. It is a format that a candidature can use to present to a given election. To present the candidature, a candidate must present a minimum number of signatures relative to the electoral census. Given its temporary nature, if the promoters wanted to use the grouping for another election, the latter must be re-constituted. Unlike political parties, party federations or electoral coalitions, a grouping of electors cannot profit from public electoral funding from a preceding candidature. Signatures Municipal elections As established in the Art. 192 of the electoral law, the required number of signatures depends on the size of the municipality: * Under 5,000 inhabitants, the number of signatures must be no less than the 1% of voters as long as the number of signataries is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electoral Threshold
The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can operate in various ways, e.g. in party-list proportional representation systems where an electoral threshold requires that a party must receive a specified minimum percentage of votes (e.g. 5%), either nationally or in a particular electoral district, to obtain seats in the legislature. In Single transferable voting the election threshold is called the quota and not only the first choice but also the next-indicated choices are used to determine whether or not a party passes the electoral threshold (and it is possible to be elected under STV even if a candidate does not pass the election threshold). In MMP systems the election threshold determines which parties are eligible for the top-up seats. The effect of an electoral threshold is to d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proportional Representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divisions (political parties) of the electorate. The essence of such systems is that all votes cast - or almost all votes cast - contribute to the result and are actually used to help elect someone—not just a plurality, or a bare majority—and that the system produces mixed, balanced representation reflecting how votes are cast. "Proportional" electoral systems mean proportional to ''vote share'' and ''not'' proportional to population size. For example, the US House of Representatives has 435 districts which are drawn so roughly equal or "proportional" numbers of people live within each district, yet members of the House are elected in first-past-the-post elections: first-past-the-post is ''not'' proportional by vote share. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Closed List
Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively only vote for political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some influence, that would be called an open list. Closed list systems are still commonly used in party-list proportional representation, and most mixed electoral systems also use closed lists in their party list component. Many countries, however have changed their electoral systems to use open lists to incorporate personalised representation to their proportional systems. In closed list systems, each political party has pre-decided who will receive the seats allocated to that party in the elections, so that the candidates positioned highest on this list tend to always get a seat in the parliament while the candidates positioned very low on the closed list will not. However, the candidates "at the water mark" of a given party are in the position ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
D'Hondt Method
The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highest-averages methods. The method was first described in 1792 by future U.S. president Thomas Jefferson. It was re-invented independently in 1878 by Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt, which is the reason for its two different names. Motivation Proportional representation systems aim to allocate seats to parties approximately in proportion to the number of votes received. For example, if a party wins one-third of the votes then it should gain about one-third of the seats. In general, exact proportionality is not possible because these divisions produce fractional numbers of seats. As a result, several methods, of which the D'Hondt method is one, have been devised which ensure that the parties' seat allocations, which are of whole numbers, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
