Ciao!

Maybe I'm missing something, but why would the Prefect election need to be like the Presidential (where Congress seats are distributed) and Municipal (where Council seats are distributed)?

As far as I can tell, it is far too early to tell what this election will entail. I have not read anything indicating that each Department will count on its own legislative branch.

Oh, is there an election in Iraq today? (j/k)

I'm curious to see how the lunatics will suppress the vote. The insurgents' primary weapons, fear and intimidation, will certainly suppress participation, but how much, I wonder? Since the election's an issue of first review, can we know what to expect?

Eduardo:

I think there should be at least a prefectural council (as there nominally is now). Having all that authority rest in only one person is problematic, and goes against the principle of decentralization (if by that we mean dispersed power & authority).

And since Bolivia has many political parties, even in every department, we could end up w/ nightmare scenarios where the plurality winner only takes 12% of the vote or less. How much legitimacy would that person have to run an entire department? Would other citizens be willing to accept such an outcome?

If they do decide to have a one-person prefect, then at the very least the election should require a true majority. That could be done w/ a runoff election. Or even w/ more complex electoral systems like AV (alternative vote) or STV (single transferable vote).

Personally, I'd be quite happy w/ a president-appointed prefect, so long as there was a departmental legislature w/ real power. The prefect could represent the central state and exercise nominal authority & executive administrative power. The departmental legislature could be given the power of the purse, the ability to make laws, etc. It'd be a good enough system. And it'd be somewhat similar to the system currently used in Spain, where regions have their own government and an executive authority appointed by Madrid that represent the central state in the region (which is partly why Spain's model of regional autonomies is not a federal system).

Another reason the Spanish system is so interesting, is that it grants each of the country's autonomous regions a different degree of autonomy, based on the competence of each region. Some, like Catalunya, have widespread competence & administrative jurisdiction over many areas. But even Cataunya doesn't have its own tax infrastructure (meaning it still relies on taxes collected by Madrid, and allocated to the region's government). But this may change soon, as several regions (including Catalunya) are planning on developing their own tax systems. But the Spanish notion of not only granting autonomy to regions, but also allowing the regions to decide how much autonomy & when is fascinating.

Miguel, I think you are on to something. Your idea of an appointed prefect balanced by a state legislature, I mean.

I think there has to be a gradual process. Which Departments could afford to add another layer of legislative bureaucracy? Probably La Paz, Santa Cruz, and maybe Cochabamba.

Something that always bothered me, especially in municipal elections is that council seats are determined according to the total number of votes the mayoral candidate receives. I am so used to council seats (such as in the U.S.) distributed according to geographical and neighborhood districts (except for some at-large seats). Neighbors have a specific person to hold accountable.

Perhaps if a Dept. legistlature was divided this way, then the rural populations will be represented a little better.