Assembly candidate lists
04.04.2006Technorati tags: Bolivia politics
The candidate lists for the Bolivian constituent assembly are up as of early this morning. Sadly, my other time deadlines — dissertation, job interviews, conference paper (in order of importance) — prevent me from delving into this until later, perhaps much later.
But this will certainly be an interesting election. I've not yet even had a chance to consider the new, two-tiered electoral system. Completely different than the MMP (mixed-member proportional) system used in general elections (e.g. 2005). This time, there are no single-seat districts, but rather two levels of multi-seat districts: Three delegates will be elected from each uninominal district (which in general elections elects only one person using first-past-the-post); the number of uninominal districts vary in each department. Three Five delegates will be elected from each department (which in general elections elect varying numbers of deputies, based on population). There are a total of 70 uninominal districts and 9 departments.
If you want to dig through the lists, the CNE website has them posted here. I've gone through them very briefly. It's interesting to note that there are relatively few recognized names (old party candidates) in the lists. Also, all the major players (party-wise) are back in it: MNR, MIR, ADN, UCS, MBL. As well as the new players: PODEMOS, MAS, UN. And, of course, lots and lots of regional alliances — which is the new fad in Bolivian politics.
Posted by Miguel at 10:38 PM
Comments
This time, there are no single-seat districts, but rather two levels of multi-seat districts: Three delegates will be elected from each uninominal district...
I am confused. A "uninominal" district is by definition a single-member district, no?
Assuming the basic tier is actually all plurinominal, how are the members to be elected? PR, or nominal votes? If the latter, how many votes per voter?
This could be either a really good improvement on the congressional system or a bad retrogression. I fear the latter, and hope I am wrong!
Posted by: Matthew Shugart at April 13, 2006 02:37 PM
I hope I addressed those concerns here:
Posted by: mcentellas ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.centellas.org/miguel/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 13, 2006 05:29 PM
I'm not sure that they are called "uninominal district", but rather "circunscripcion", in which it wouldn't be a contradiction based on the number of seats.
Posted by: eduardo at April 14, 2006 12:13 AM