NUMERI PRAGENSES
Methodology
11. ELECTIONS Elections to the Senate of Parliament of the Czech Republic were hold on 5 and 6 November 2004, as declared by President of the Czech Republic in his Decision No. 449/2004 of 19 July 2004. Pursuant to the same law, the second round of the elections was held on 12 and 13 November 2004 in the election districts where no senator was elected in the first round. The elections took place in 27 election districts—i.e. in the districts where senators were elected for six years in 1998 and whose electoral term expired. The elections were conducted in single-seat election districts by secret ballot according to the principle of the first-past-the-post system and respected universal, equal and direct suffrage. Every national of the CR aged 18 at least on the day of the elections had the right to vote provided that he/she was not prevented to exercise his/her right to vote by a law-stipulated impediment. The voter was allowed to vote on the basis of his/her voter pass in any electoral ward on the territory of an election district provided that the electoral ward where the voter was recorded on the permanent electoral roll belonged to the territory of this election district. Every voter could be entered on one electoral roll only. Every national of the CR could be elected a senator provided that he/she reached the age of 40 at least on the second day of the elections and was not deprived of legal capacity. Candidates for the Senate elections were put up by political parties and political movements registered by the Ministry of the Interior, or by their coalitions. The parties could put up only one candidate in the same election district. An independent candidate could also submit their election application. Subsequent to the counting of voting results for all electoral wards of a given election district, the total number of valid votes for the district and the total number of valid votes for each candidate were established. The candidate was elected a senator provided he/she received over 50% of the total number of valid votes in the district. No senator was elected where no candidate received a majority of votes and the second round of the elections was held in the district concerned a week later. In this round, however, only two candidates who received most of valid votes in the first round stood in the elections and the one who received more valid votes in the second round was elected a senator. |