Focus on Women
8. FEMALES IN DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES | Contents |
The elections to the Senate of Parliament of the Czech Republic were held on 25.-26. October 2002 on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot, according to the principle of an electoral system of majority in single-mandate election wards. The wards were laid down by law so that each would cover a territory of the country with a population of 127 thousand on average. The definition of the election wards was the same as in 1996. The right to vote was enjoyed by Czech nationals aged 18 or more on the second polling day, who were not hindered by law to exercise their suffrage. The voter was allowed to exercise his/her suffrage only in his/her election district of residence where his/her name was on the standing or special list of electors. Czech citizens who were not residing on the territory of the CR and made their appearance in a polling station on the polling days were also allowed to vote. No voter’s name could be on more than one list of electors. The “one voter - one vote” principle was ensured by the organisational measure: the election committee gave the voter an official envelope for him/her to cast his/her vote by inserting into it the ballot paper of the candidate chosen.
If a candidate won over 50% of votes out of the total votes valid in the election ward, he/she was returned a member of the Senate. Where none of the candidates achieved this limit, no senator was elected and the second round was held in the election ward concerned six days later. However, only the first two candidates who got the most valid votes in the first round qualified to the second.
The local elections were held on 1.-2. November 2002 on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot. The right to vote was enjoyed by Czech nationals aged 18+, who were residing in the municipality concerned and were not hindered by law to exercise their suffrage. The voter was allowed to cast his/her vote only at the election district of his/her residence and his/her name could not be on more than one list of electors. The number of members of a local council was dependent on the population of the municipality and ranged between 5 and 55. The voter was free to use one of three ways of casting his/her vote on the ballot, stipulated by the law, which was common to all election parties standing for elections. The pre-determined number of seats in the local council was provided to the election parties in one scrutiny, using a proportional system and election aliquots.