Ley de lemas
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(June 2009) |
Theley de lemasis a variant ofopen listproportional representation,which is, or has been, used in elections inArgentina,Uruguay,andHonduras,and works as follows:
- Eachpolitical party(or coalition, if permitted) is formally termed alema(from a Spanish word meaningmotto).
- Eachlemamight have severalsublemas(candidatesor lists of candidates). The actual composition of thesesublemascan vary: it can be simply a pair of candidates (for election to the posts of governor and vice-governor, for example), or an ordered list of candidates to fill the seats in alegislative body.
- Each party can present severalsublemasto the mainelection.
- The winning party is the one which receives the most votes after the votes won by each of itssublemashave been added together. Within this party, the winningsublemais the one which, individually, won the most votes. Once the number of votes received by eachlemaandsublemahas been determined, seats or posts are allocated to each proportionally.
History and use[edit]
Thelemassystem was designed in 1870 by theBelgianprofessor Charles Borelli.
Uruguay[edit]
Lemaswere introduced in Uruguay in the early 20th century when the "Lemalaw "introduced double simultaneous voting.[1]It allowed for the election of the President, Chamber of Deputies and Senate by casting a single vote. Parties acted aslemas,while party factions formedsublemas.[2]Voters would vote for asublemaof a party, with the totals ofsublemastotalled to establish the winning party.
During periods in which a presidential system was enacted (as opposed to thecollegiado systemthat operated between 1918 and 1933 and 1951 and 1966), the presidential candidate of thesublemain the winning party with the most votes would become president.[2]
This system was abolished for presidential elections after constitutional reforms were passed in a1996 referendum,restricting each party to a single presidential candidate.[3]Departmentelections still use the old system.
The parliamentary and department elections still use double simultaneous voting.
Honduras[edit]
Hondurasapplied theley de lemasin the1985 presidential election,when, due to factionalism within the two dominant parties, both were unable to elect a single presidential candidate.
Argentina[edit]
In Argentina, a number ofprovincesemploy or have employed a version of this electoral system. Currently, this law is in the provinces ofFormosaandMisiones.Provinces have complete freedom to elect local and national representatives using the method of their choice; the system propagates down to themunicipallevel (except in the hypothetical case ofautonomous cities).
Thelemassystem has never been used in Argentina for a presidential election, though the idea was circulated beforethe 2003 election.In the wake ofFernando de la Rúa's resignation in the wake of the2001 riots,original plans called for a permanent successor to be elected in 2002 under thelemassystem.
Support[edit]
Theley de lemaspresents itself as a solution to the problem offiatselection of candidates performed behind closed doors by party factions. By allowing many candidates to run within the same party and leaving the decision to the citizenry, the system is supposed to end the practice of dark intra-party alliances and add transparency to the conflicts between internal factions. This helps the participation of independent candidates without support from powerful party figures. It also avoidsprimary elections(which, in the case of Argentina, had never been practiced widely during the 20th century and typically enjoyed very lowvoter turnout).
Criticism[edit]
Theparty-list proportional representationsystem works under the assumption that the citizens vote primarily for parties. However, citizens often place emphasis on individual candidates rather than the parties' perceived ideological platforms. (This is especially true of Argentina.) The diversity of views allowed within a single party means that voters may end up indirectly giving their vote to a candidate that the voters do not really support. A party that decides to present multiple candidates, either with similar or opposing ideologies, may win even if the elected candidate had few votes compared with all the other candidates. For example, in the1971 Uruguayan presidential election,Juan Maria Bordaberrywon the presidency despite finishing over 60,000 votes behindWilson Ferreira Aldunate.However, in that election, candidates from Bordaberry'sColorado Partywon 12,000 more votes between them than the candidates from Aldunate'sNational Party.
Also, proportional representation systems are intended for multiple winners – for example, candidates to fill a legislative chamber – but theley de lemashas been used to elect single winners (presidents, governors and mayors).