Distribution of parliamentary seats per district

The act which is expected to cause harsh political reactions has a law violation within itself, since the Electoral College has given no competency to the CEC Secretary to make this request to any other institution.

Article 20.a of the Electoral Code authorizes the Chairman to represent CEC in the communication process between other institutions through legal orders that become effective only with the Vice Chairman’s signature, as foreseen by Article 3.

The request says that after CEC failed to take the decision through a qualified majority and since the deadline for appealing at the Electoral College has expired, the Parliament has to take over.

“Since CEC was unable to pass the new number of parliamentary seats per Electoral Zones in full accordance with Article 76 of the Electoral Code, we communicate this report regarding the procedures that were followed for the implementation of the Code, the objective of which is to inform and allow the Parliament to conclude the procedures foreseen by this Code.”

But the Electoral Code states that CEC is the only competent institution to manage the parliamentary seats distribution, and the Parliament just approves calculations made by the highest electoral institution. The deadline is six months before the current Parliament is dissolved, March 2013 on this case. To this request was also attached the decision taken by CEC in 2009 regarding the same issue.

The Democratic Party claimed that the decision taken in 2009 should remain in force, while the opposition is asking a new distribution, but only if it is decided by the Central Election Commission and not the Parliament.

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