Focus on Women and Men
8. Public life and decision-making | Contents |
Regional council elections were held on 1-2 November 2000 on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot, following the principle of proportional representation. The number of seats was laid down for each regional council with regard to the population of the region as at 1 January 2000 for 45, 55 or 65 councillors to be elected. The voters were Czech nationals aged 18 or more on the day of the elections as the latest and had no legal impediment to exercising their suffrage. They could only vote at wards, where they were placed on the register of electors according to their domicile.
To cast his/her vote, the voter put one ballot paper for the chosen political party, movement or coalition (hereinafter as the party only) in an official envelope into a ballot box. The voter was allowed to show his/her preference for up to four candidates on the ballot paper chosen.
However, only the parties that won a minimum of 5% of votes of the total valid votes within the region could contest a seat. The seats were then divided among them in one scrutiny according to a law-based algorithm, using election factors. The seats won by the party were allocated to candidates in the order the candidates were shown on the list of candidates; however, where a candidate won so many preference votes that they accounted for at least 10% of the total votes cast for the party within the region, he/she was moved to rank first for the allocation of seats or on the list of substitutes.
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.