Ley de Lemas
Encyclopedia
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The ley de lemas is the Spanish
name of the double simultaneous voting (DSV) system which is, or has been, used in elections in Argentina
, Uruguay
and Honduras
. It employs an unusual open party-list proportional representation
method, and works as follows:
professor Charles Borelli.
in 1875, but the system was adopted progressively by several modifications and innovations to the electoral law in 1910, 1934, 1935 and 1939. Uruguay still employs it, though the constitutional
reform of 1996 has limited its scope to intendent elections.
applied the Ley de Lemas in the 1985 presidential election
, when due to factionalism within the two dominant parties both were unable to elect a single presidential candidate.
employ or have employed a version of this electoral system: Chubut
, Formosa
, Jujuy
, La Rioja
, Misiones
, Río Negro
, Salta
, San Luis
, Santa Cruz
, Santa Fe
, Santiago del Estero
, and Tucumán
. Provinces have complete freedom to elect local and national representatives using the method of their choice; the system propagates down to the municipal
level (except in the hypothetical case of autonomous cities).
The lemas system has never been used in Argentina for a presidential election, though the idea was circulated before the 2003 election.
s (which, in the case of Argentina, have never been practiced widely and typically enjoy very low voter turnout
).
system 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 of opposing ideologies, may win even if the elected candidate had few votes compared with all the other candidates.
Also, proportional representation system are intended for multiple winners (for example, candidates to fill a legislative chamber); yet the Ley de Lemas has been used to elect presidents, governors and mayor
s as well.
, where the Ley de Lemas was in force since 1991, it produced three instances of governor elections lost by candidates who had obtained considerably more votes than their immediate rival.
In the 2003 elections, the Socialist
candidate Hermes Binner
(former mayor of Rosario
) got 600,249 votes, while the Justicialist Party
(Peronist
) candidate Jorge Obeid
(former governor and mayor of Santa Fe
City), got 345,744 votes. Obeid, however, won the election thanks to the cumulative votes of the other Justicialist sublemas, including the one led by former Socialist Héctor Cavallero
. http://www.towsa.com/andy/totalpais/santafe/2003g.html
It also happened in 1991, when Reutemann won the elections with 488.105 votes and 46.8% of votes for Justicialist Party's 17 sublemas, and Horacio Usandizaga
got 601.304 votes, but only 40.5% for Unión Cívica Radical's (UCR) 3 sublemas.
In 1995, Usandizaga got 464.270 votes, but the outcome favored Jorge Obeid
with 327.706 votes
because of 294.497 votes for Héctor Cavallero
's sublema.
http://www.lacapital.com.ar/2005/09/18/politica/noticia_230731.shtml
The proliferation of (mostly opportunistic) sub-lists for legislative posts reached outlandish levels, to the point that 1 voter in 51 was a candidate to some post in some sublema (about 40,000 candidates total).
The law was repealed on 30 November 2004, and replaced by compulsory primary election
s followed by a closed-list main election, with proportional representation for legislative elections and first-past-the-post for the executive charges.
, the 2003 election saw a total of 1,800 sublemas (for provincial and municipal executive and legislative posts). More than 50,000 citizens were candidates (1 in 23 eligible voters). As in Santa Fe, this confused the voters and diluted the legitimacy of the candidates, as well as making the vote count an extremely complicated process.
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The ley de lemas is the Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
name of the double simultaneous voting (DSV) system which is, or has been, used in elections in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
and Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
. It employs an unusual open party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation in elections in which multiple candidates are elected...
method, and works as follows:
- Each political partyPolitical partyA political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
(or coalition, if permitted) is formally termed a lema. - Each lema might have several sublemas (candidates or lists of candidates). The actual composition of these sublemas can 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 a legislative bodyLegislatureA 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...
. - There are no primary electionPrimary electionA primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
s. Each party can present several sublemas directly to the main electionElectionAn election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
. - The winning party is the one which receives the most votes after the votes won by each of its sublemas have been added together. Within this party, the winning sublema is the one which, individually, won the most votes. Once the number of votes received by each lema and sublema has been determined, seats or posts are allocated to each proportionally, typically using a system such as the d'Hondt methodD'Hondt methodThe d'Hondt method is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. The method described is named after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt who described it in 1878...
.
History and use
The Lemas system was designed in 1870 by the BelgianBelgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
professor Charles Borelli.
Uruguay
The first legislative project supporting it was presented in UruguayUruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
in 1875, but the system was adopted progressively by several modifications and innovations to the electoral law in 1910, 1934, 1935 and 1939. Uruguay still employs it, though the constitutional
Constitution of Uruguay
The Constitution of Uruguay is the supreme law of Uruguay. Its first version was written in 1830 and its last amendment was made in 2002. A new amendment is in talks as of April 2007....
reform of 1996 has limited its scope to intendent elections.
Honduras
HondurasHonduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
applied the Ley de Lemas in the 1985 presidential election
Honduran general election, 1985
A general election was held in Honduras on 24 November 1985. Voters went to the polls to elect a new President of the Republic and a new Congress.- Presidential election results :- Legislative election :- Bibliography :...
, when due to factionalism within the two dominant parties both were unable to elect a single presidential candidate.
Argentina
In Argentina, a number of provincesProvinces of Argentina
Argentina is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city...
employ or have employed a version of this electoral system: Chubut
Chubut Province
Chubut a province in the southern part of Argentina situated between the 42nd parallel south and the 46th parallel south , the Andes range separating Argentina from Chile, and the Atlantic ocean...
, Formosa
Formosa Province
Formosa Province is in northeastern Argentina, part of the Gran Chaco Region. Its northeast end touches Asunción, Paraguay, and borders the provinces of Chaco and Salta to its south and west, respectively...
, Jujuy
Jujuy Province
Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south.-History:...
, La Rioja
La Rioja Province (Argentina)
La Rioja is a one of the provinces of Argentina and is located in the west of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Catamarca, Córdoba, San Luis and San Juan.-History:...
, Misiones
Misiones Province
Misiones is one of the 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the northeastern corner of the country in the Mesopotamiсa region. It is surrounded by Paraguay to the northwest, Brazil to the north, east and south, and Corrientes Province of Argentina to the southwest.- History :The province was...
, Río Negro
Río Negro Province
Río Negro is a province of Argentina, located at the northern edge of Patagonia. Neighboring provinces are from the south clockwise Chubut, Neuquén, Mendoza, La Pampa and Buenos Aires. To the east lies the Atlantic Ocean.Its capital is Viedma...
, Salta
Salta Province
Salta is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the east clockwise Formosa, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán and Catamarca. It also surrounds Jujuy...
, San Luis
San Luis Province
San Luis is a province of Argentina located near the geographical center of the country . Neighboring provinces are, from the north clockwise, La Rioja, Córdoba, La Pampa, Mendoza and San Juan.-History:...
, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Province (Argentina)
Santa Cruz is a province of Argentina, located in the southern part of the country, in Patagonia. It borders Chubut province to the north, and Chile to the west and south. To the east is the Atlantic Ocean...
, Santa Fe
Santa Fe Province
The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...
, Santiago del Estero
Santiago del Estero Province
Santiago del Estero is a province of Argentina, located in the north of the country. Neighbouring provinces are from the north clockwise Salta, Chaco, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Catamarca and Tucumán.-History:...
, and Tucumán
Tucumán Province
Tucumán is the most densely populated, and the smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina. Located in the northwest of the country, the capital is San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neighboring provinces are, clockwise from the north: Salta, Santiago del Estero and...
. Provinces have complete freedom to elect local and national representatives using the method of their choice; the system propagates down to the municipal
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
level (except in the hypothetical case of autonomous cities).
The lemas system has never been used in Argentina for a presidential election, though the idea was circulated before the 2003 election.
Support
The Ley de Lemas presents itself as a solution to the problem of fiat selection 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 (not backed up by powerful party leaders). It also avoids primary electionPrimary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
s (which, in the case of Argentina, have never been practiced widely and typically enjoy very low voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...
).
Criticism
The party-list proportional representationParty-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation in elections in which multiple candidates are elected...
system 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 of opposing ideologies, may win even if the elected candidate had few votes compared with all the other candidates.
Also, proportional representation system are intended for multiple winners (for example, candidates to fill a legislative chamber); yet the Ley de Lemas has been used to elect presidents, governors and mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
s as well.
In Santa Fe
In the province of Santa FeSanta Fe Province
The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...
, where the Ley de Lemas was in force since 1991, it produced three instances of governor elections lost by candidates who had obtained considerably more votes than their immediate rival.
In the 2003 elections, the Socialist
Socialist Party (Argentina)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in Argentina. The history of socialism in Argentina began in the 1890s, when a group of people, notably Juan B. Justo, expressed the need for a greater social focus....
candidate Hermes Binner
Hermes Binner
Hermes Juan Binner is an Argentine medical doctor and a politician. He was elected Governor of Santa Fe in 2007. Binner is the first Socialist to become the governor of an Argentine province, and the first non-Justicialist to rule Santa Fe since 1983.Binner was previously a Deputy of the Civic and...
(former mayor of Rosario
Rosario
Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....
) got 600,249 votes, while the Justicialist Party
Justicialist Party
The Justicialist Party , or PJ, is a Peronist political party in Argentina, and the largest component of the Peronist movement.The party was led by Néstor Kirchner, President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, until his death on October 27, 2010. The current Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de...
(Peronist
Peronism
Peronism , or Justicialism , is an Argentine political movement based on the programmes associated with former President Juan Perón and his second wife, Eva Perón...
) candidate Jorge Obeid
Jorge Obeid
Jorge Alberto Obeid is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician, currently an Argentine Chamber of Deputies and former governor of Santa Fe Province until 2007....
(former governor and mayor of Santa Fe
Santa Fe, Argentina
Santa Fe is the capital city of province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It sits in northeastern Argentina, near the junction of the Paraná and Salado rivers. It lies opposite the city of Paraná, to which it is linked by the Hernandarias Subfluvial Tunnel. The city is also connected by canal with the...
City), got 345,744 votes. Obeid, however, won the election thanks to the cumulative votes of the other Justicialist sublemas, including the one led by former Socialist Héctor Cavallero
Héctor Cavallero
Héctor Cavallero , nicknamed El Tigre, "The Tiger", is an Argentine politician, who was mayor of Rosario and a member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies for the province of Santa Fe ....
. http://www.towsa.com/andy/totalpais/santafe/2003g.html
It also happened in 1991, when Reutemann won the elections with 488.105 votes and 46.8% of votes for Justicialist Party's 17 sublemas, and Horacio Usandizaga
Horacio Usandizaga
Horacio Daniel Usandizaga , also known informally as El Vasco, is an Argentine politician.Usandizaga studied to become a lawyer and entered political activity as a member of the Radical Civic Union in 1961. He was first a councillor and then Mayor of Rosario from 11 December 1983 to 10 December 1987...
got 601.304 votes, but only 40.5% for Unión Cívica Radical's (UCR) 3 sublemas.
In 1995, Usandizaga got 464.270 votes, but the outcome favored Jorge Obeid
Jorge Obeid
Jorge Alberto Obeid is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician, currently an Argentine Chamber of Deputies and former governor of Santa Fe Province until 2007....
with 327.706 votes
because of 294.497 votes for Héctor Cavallero
Héctor Cavallero
Héctor Cavallero , nicknamed El Tigre, "The Tiger", is an Argentine politician, who was mayor of Rosario and a member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies for the province of Santa Fe ....
's sublema.
http://www.lacapital.com.ar/2005/09/18/politica/noticia_230731.shtml
The proliferation of (mostly opportunistic) sub-lists for legislative posts reached outlandish levels, to the point that 1 voter in 51 was a candidate to some post in some sublema (about 40,000 candidates total).
The law was repealed on 30 November 2004, and replaced by compulsory primary election
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
s followed by a closed-list main election, with proportional representation for legislative elections and first-past-the-post for the executive charges.
In Tucumán
The Ley de Lemas makes it easy to postulate a myriad of candidates, even if they have little representativity, and in fact encourages political parties to do so. In the province of TucumánTucumán Province
Tucumán is the most densely populated, and the smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina. Located in the northwest of the country, the capital is San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neighboring provinces are, clockwise from the north: Salta, Santiago del Estero and...
, the 2003 election saw a total of 1,800 sublemas (for provincial and municipal executive and legislative posts). More than 50,000 citizens were candidates (1 in 23 eligible voters). As in Santa Fe, this confused the voters and diluted the legitimacy of the candidates, as well as making the vote count an extremely complicated process.