Preferential voting, the Constitution overthrows the small parties: 2/3 of the open list

The Constitutional Court left in force the wording of the Electoral Code on preferential lists, overturning the request of small parties for the repeal of these articles. The body of judges notes that the formula agreed by SP and DP guarantees the constitutional provision that no less than two-thirds of the multi-name list of candidates are subject to preferential voting.

The Constitutional Court decided by a majority of votes to overturn the request presented by the small parties, against the changes in the Electoral Code agreed between the SP and PD, regarding the lists of preferential candidates. The formula guarantees the constitutional provision that no less than two-thirds of the list with many names shall be subject to the preferential vote", affirms the Constitutional Court.

"Regarding the claim of calculating the number of candidates on the list with a fixed order depending on the decimal point less than or greater than 0.5 provided for in point 2 of Article 67 of the Electoral Code, the Court assessed that the claims of the petitioners are unfounded . To reach this conclusion, the Court took into consideration that the multi-name list of political subjects consists of a list with a fixed order and a list subject to preferential voting (Article 67, point 1 of the Electoral Code). The latter, as a component of the multi-name list of political subjects, guarantees the constitutional provision of Article 64, point 3 "that no less than two-thirds of the multi-name list shall be subject to preferential voting".

Through an announcement, the Court emphasizes that it found no violation of the principle of equality before the law for both political parties and organizations and individuals. Both the principle of the right to choose and the right to choose are not affected. According to the constitutional body, legal provisions are addressed equally to all electoral subjects and voters. Consequently, they do not differentiate between them in the voting process.  (A2 Televizion)