Elections in Luxembourg
Encyclopedia
Elections in Luxembourg are held to determine the political composition of the representative institutions of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
. Luxembourg is a liberal
representative democracy
, with universal suffrage
guaranteed under the constitution
. Elections are held regularly, and are considered to be fair and free.
Separate elections are held to elect representatives at national, communal
, and European
levels. The main institution to which members are elected is the Chamber of Deputies
, the national legislature
and the sole source of membership, confidence, and supply of the government. Luxembourg is represented by six MEPs
to the European Parliament
, who are elected simultaneously with elections held in other European Union member states.
The country has a multi-party system
, traditionally defined by the existence of three large political parties: the Christian Social People's Party
(CSV), the Democratic Party
(DP), and the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party
(LSAP). Historically, the three parties have won a large majority of the votes between them, but their total percentage has fallen recently, such that two additional parties, the Greens
and the Alternative Democratic Reform Party
(ADR) have recorded over 9% of votes at each of last two legislative elections. The CSV (and its predecessor
) has provided the Prime Minister for all but six years since 1918, and has always been the largest party in the legislature. In this respect, Luxembourg has certain features of a dominant-party system
, although coalition governments are the norm.
Chamber of Deputies
(Luxembourgish
Châmber vun Députéirten, French
: Chambre des députés, German
: Abgeordnetenkammer). The Chamber has 60 members, known as 'deputies', elected for a five-year term in four multi-seat constituencies, known as 'circonscriptions'. Seats are allocated by proportional representation
, using the Hagenbach-Bischoff system
. Voting is compulsory
for all voters on the electoral register
.
To be eligible to vote in elections to the Chamber of Deputies, one must fulfil the following criteria:
In addition to the criteria outlined above, to stand for election to the Chamber of Deputies, one must be resident in Luxembourg. Furthermore, one cannot be a candidate if one is a judge or a member of the Council of State
.
. The four circonscriptions are Centre
, Est
, Nord
, Sud
.
As the constituencies are based on geographic region and traditional borders, they have greatly differing populations. To reflect this, each circonscription elects a different number of deputies; Sud, with 40% of the national population, elects twenty-three deputies, whilst Est, with only 12% of the population, elects seven. Voters can cast as many votes as their circonscription elects deputies (so, in Est, one can vote for up to seven candidates), which can be spread across party lists or concentrated behind one single party.
The CSV is in a strong enough position to form a coalition with any one of three parties: LSAP (partner in the Juncker-Asselborn Ministry), the DP (partner in the Juncker-Polfer Ministry), and the Greens (who have never entered the government). However, the DP and Greens have both ruled out the possibility of a coalition with the CSV, leaving only the previous coalition partners, LSAP, in the running.[5]
, which is the primary representative organ of the EU, and, with the Council of the European Union
, forms its legislative branch. Due to its small size, the Grand Duchy elects just six members out of a total of 732, which is more than only Malta
(which elects five MEPs); nonetheless, Luxembourg's representation is disproportionately large compared to its population, and Luxembourg elects more MEPs per capita than any other country (see: Apportionment in the European Parliament
).
MEPs are elected to five-year terms. The exact date of elections is decided by Luxembourg, allowing it to schedule them on the same date as elections to the Chamber of Deputies (as is usually the case).
In addition to the criteria outlined above, to stand for election to the European Parliament, one must be resident in Luxembourg. There are also extra requirements if one is a non-Luxembourgian citizen, in which case, one must be in full possession of one's political rights in both Luxembourg and one's country of citizenship (if not a Luxembourgian national), and have resided in Luxembourg for the past five years (and not just five of the past six).
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
. Luxembourg is a liberal
Liberal democracy
Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...
representative democracy
Representative democracy
Representative democracy is a form of government founded on the principle of elected individuals representing the people, as opposed to autocracy and direct democracy...
, with universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
guaranteed under the constitution
Constitution of Luxembourg
The Constitution of Luxembourg is the supreme law of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The modern constitution was adopted on 17 October 1868.Whilst the constitution of 1868 marked a radical change in Luxembourg's constitutional settlement, it was technically an amendment of the original constitution...
. Elections are held regularly, and are considered to be fair and free.
Separate elections are held to elect representatives at national, communal
Communes of Luxembourg
The communes of Luxembourg are the lowest nation-wide administrative division in Luxembourg. They conform to LAU level 2.Within the hierarchy of administrative subdivisions, communes come directly below cantons, which are directly below districts. Communes are often re-arranged, being merged or...
, and European
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
levels. The main institution to which members are elected is the Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg
The Chamber of Deputies , abbreviated to the Chamber, is the unicameral national legislature of Luxembourg. 'Krautmaart' is sometimes used as a metonym for the Chamber, after the square on which the Hôtel de la Chambre is located....
, the national legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
and the sole source of membership, confidence, and supply of the government. Luxembourg is represented by six MEPs
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
to the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
, who are elected simultaneously with elections held in other European Union member states.
The country has a multi-party system
Multi-party system
A multi-party system is a system in which multiple political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition, e.g.The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in the United Kingdom formed in 2010. The effective number of parties in a multi-party system is normally...
, traditionally defined by the existence of three large political parties: the Christian Social People's Party
Christian Social People's Party
The Christian Social People's Party , abbreviated to CSV or PCS, is the largest political party in Luxembourg. The party follows a Christian Democratic and conservative ideology and, like most parties in Luxembourg, it is strongly pro-European...
(CSV), the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (Luxembourg)
The Democratic Party , abbreviated to DP, is the major liberal political party in Luxembourg. One of the three major parties, the DP sits on the centre-right, holding moderate market liberal views combined with a strong emphasis on civil liberties, human rights, and internationalism.Founded in...
(DP), and the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party
Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party
The Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party , abbreviated to LSAP or POSL, is a social democratic political party in Luxembourg.The LSAP is the second-largest party in the Chamber of Deputies, having won 13 of 60 seats at the 2009 election, and has one seat in the European Parliament...
(LSAP). Historically, the three parties have won a large majority of the votes between them, but their total percentage has fallen recently, such that two additional parties, the Greens
The Greens (Luxembourg)
The Greens is a Luxembourgian green political party.-1983-1993:The Greens were originally founded in 23 June 1983. In the 1984 election, the party got two seats in the Chamber of Deputies. In 1985, however the party split between two parties one called 'GLEI' and the other called 'GAP'...
and the Alternative Democratic Reform Party
Alternative Democratic Reform Party
The Alternative Democratic Reform Party , abbreviated to ADR, is a conservative political party in Luxembourg. It has four seats in the sixty-seat Chamber of Deputies, making it the fifth-largest party....
(ADR) have recorded over 9% of votes at each of last two legislative elections. The CSV (and its predecessor
Party of the Right (Luxembourg)
The Party of the Right , abbreviated to PD, was a political party in Luxembourg between 1914 and 1944. It was the direct predecessor of the Christian Social People's Party , which has ruled Luxembourg for all but five years since....
) has provided the Prime Minister for all but six years since 1918, and has always been the largest party in the legislature. In this respect, Luxembourg has certain features of a dominant-party system
Dominant-party system
A dominant-party system, or one-party dominant system, is a system where there is "a category of parties/political organizations that have successively won election victories and whose future defeat cannot be envisaged or is unlikely for the foreseeable future." A wide range of parties have been...
, although coalition governments are the norm.
Chamber of Deputies
Luxembourg's national legislature is the unicameralUnicameralism
In government, unicameralism is the practice of having one legislative or parliamentary chamber. Thus, a unicameral parliament or unicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of one chamber or house...
Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg
The Chamber of Deputies , abbreviated to the Chamber, is the unicameral national legislature of Luxembourg. 'Krautmaart' is sometimes used as a metonym for the Chamber, after the square on which the Hôtel de la Chambre is located....
(Luxembourgish
Luxembourgish language
Luxembourgish is a High German language spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 320,000 people worldwide speak Luxembourgish.-Language family:...
Châmber vun Députéirten, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
: Chambre des députés, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Abgeordnetenkammer). The Chamber has 60 members, known as 'deputies', elected for a five-year term in four multi-seat constituencies, known as 'circonscriptions'. Seats are allocated by proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
, using the Hagenbach-Bischoff system
Hagenbach-Bischoff system
The Hagenbach-Bischoff system is a variant of the D'Hondt method, used for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. It usually uses the Hagenbach-Bischoff quota for allocating seats, and for any seats remaining the D'Hondt method is then applied so that the first and subsequent...
. Voting is compulsory
Compulsory voting
Compulsory voting is a system in which electors are obliged to vote in elections or attend a polling place on voting day. If an eligible voter does not attend a polling place, he or she may be subject to punitive measures such as fines, community service, or perhaps imprisonment if fines are unpaid...
for all voters on the electoral register
Electoral register
The electoral roll is a listing of all those registered to vote in a particular area. The register facilitates the process of voting, helps to prevent fraud and may also be used to select people for jury duty...
.
Eligibility
- One must be a Luxembourgian citizen.
- One must be eighteen years of age on election day.
- One must never have been convicted of a criminal offence.
- One must otherwise be in full possession of one's political rights (e.g. not be certified as insane).
In addition to the criteria outlined above, to stand for election to the Chamber of Deputies, one must be resident in Luxembourg. Furthermore, one cannot be a candidate if one is a judge or a member of the Council of State
Council of State of Luxembourg
The Council of State is an institution in Luxembourg that advises the national legislature, the Chamber of Deputies. Until 1 January 1997, it was also the country's supreme administrative court, but this function was ceded to the newly created Administrative Tribunal and Administrative Court.The...
.
Circonscriptions
Deputies are elected from four constituencies ('circonscriptions'). They are arranged geographically, as combinations of the twelve traditional cantonsCantons of Luxembourg
||The districts of Luxembourg are divided into 12 cantons. These cantons are subdivided into 116 communes. The cantons, listed by district, include:Diekirch District*Clervaux *Diekirch *Redange *Vianden *Wiltz Grevenmacher District...
. The four circonscriptions are Centre
Circonscription Centre (Luxembourg)
Circonscription Centre is an electoral constituency for Luxembourg's national legislature, the Chamber of Deputies.It includes the cantons of Luxembourg and Mersch, both of which are in the district of Luxembourg. , Centre has an estimated population of 151,166, or 33% of Luxembourg's total...
, Est
Circonscription Est (Luxembourg)
Circonscription Est is an electoral constituency for Luxembourg's national legislature, the Chamber of Deputies.It includes the cantons of Echternach, Grevenmacher, and Remich. Its boundaries are coterminous with those of the district of Grevenmacher...
, Nord
Circonscription Nord (Luxembourg)
Circonscription Nord is an electoral constituency for Luxembourg's national legislature, the Chamber of Deputies.It includes the cantons of Clervaux, Diekirch, Redange, Vianden, and Wiltz. Its boundaries are coterminous with those of the district of Diekirch. , Nord has an estimated population of...
, Sud
Circonscription Sud (Luxembourg)
Circonscription Sud is an electoral constituency for Luxembourg's national legislature, the Chamber of Deputies.The constituency includes the cantons of Capellen and Esch-sur-Alzette, both of which are in the district of Luxembourg...
.
As the constituencies are based on geographic region and traditional borders, they have greatly differing populations. To reflect this, each circonscription elects a different number of deputies; Sud, with 40% of the national population, elects twenty-three deputies, whilst Est, with only 12% of the population, elects seven. Voters can cast as many votes as their circonscription elects deputies (so, in Est, one can vote for up to seven candidates), which can be spread across party lists or concentrated behind one single party.
Latest election
The CSV's large margin of victory guaranteed that it would form the government once again, with Jean-Claude Juncker appointed as formateur and likely to rename as Prime Minister. Before the election, Juncker, Europe's longest-serving head of government, had told his party that he intended to step down as Minister for Finances, to be replaced by Luc Frieden.[3] This brought into question his chairmanship of the Europe-wide Eurogroup, which he had chaired since 2005. However, he has since stated that he would remain in charge of monetary policy and relations with the European Central Bank.[4]The CSV is in a strong enough position to form a coalition with any one of three parties: LSAP (partner in the Juncker-Asselborn Ministry), the DP (partner in the Juncker-Polfer Ministry), and the Greens (who have never entered the government). However, the DP and Greens have both ruled out the possibility of a coalition with the CSV, leaving only the previous coalition partners, LSAP, in the running.[5]
European Parliament
Since 1979, Luxembourg has elected members to the European ParliamentEuropean Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
, which is the primary representative organ of the EU, and, with the Council of the European Union
Council of the European Union
The Council of the European Union is the institution in the legislature of the European Union representing the executives of member states, the other legislative body being the European Parliament. The Council is composed of twenty-seven national ministers...
, forms its legislative branch. Due to its small size, the Grand Duchy elects just six members out of a total of 732, which is more than only Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
(which elects five MEPs); nonetheless, Luxembourg's representation is disproportionately large compared to its population, and Luxembourg elects more MEPs per capita than any other country (see: Apportionment in the European Parliament
Apportionment in the European Parliament
Apportionment in the European Parliament relates to the distribution of legislative seats in the European Parliament among the states of the European Union...
).
MEPs are elected to five-year terms. The exact date of elections is decided by Luxembourg, allowing it to schedule them on the same date as elections to the Chamber of Deputies (as is usually the case).
Eligibility
To be eligible to vote in elections to the European Parliament, one must fulfil the following criteria:- One must be a citizen of the European UnionCitizenship of the European UnionCitizenship of the European Union was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty . European citizenship is supplementary to national citizenship and affords rights such as the right to vote in European elections, the right to free movement and the right to consular protection from other EU states'...
. - One must be eighteen years of age on election day.
- One must never have been convicted of a criminal offence.
- One must otherwise be in full possession of one's political rights (e.g. not be certified as insane) in one's own country of citizenship (Luxembourg or another member state).
- If not a Luxembourgian citizen, must have been resident in Luxembourg for at least five of the past six years when enrolling on the electoral register.
In addition to the criteria outlined above, to stand for election to the European Parliament, one must be resident in Luxembourg. There are also extra requirements if one is a non-Luxembourgian citizen, in which case, one must be in full possession of one's political rights in both Luxembourg and one's country of citizenship (if not a Luxembourgian national), and have resided in Luxembourg for the past five years (and not just five of the past six).
Past elections
- 1999 European electionEuropean Parliament election, 1999 (Luxembourg)The European Parliament election of 1999 in Luxembourg was the election of MEP representing Luxembourg constituency for the 1999-2004 term of the European Parliament. It was part of the wider 1999 European election...
- 2004 European electionEuropean Parliament election, 2004 (Luxembourg)The European Parliament election of 2004 in Luxembourg was the election of MEP representing Luxembourg constituency for the 2004-2009 term of the European Parliament. It was part of the wider 2004 European election. It was held on June 13, 2004...