Allocation of Councillors Seats

(1) The councillors’ seats in rayon, town (municipality), village (commune) councils shall be allocated by the corresponding District Electoral Councils.

(2) Seats in the council shall be allocated to political parties, to electoral blocs of parties by dividing successively the number of valid votes cast for each political party, and electoral bloc of parties by 1, 2, 3, 4... etc., up to the figure that corresponds to the number of seats established for the respective electoral district.

(3) From the results of all the divisions and from the number of valid votes cast for independent candidates, it shall be selected in descending order as many numbers as the amount of seats to be allocated in the electoral district. The number of mandates assigned to a political party, electoral bloc of parties, depends on the quantity of numbers contained in that descending row.

(4) An independent candidate shall be considered elected if the number of votes cast for him/her fits within descending row.

(5) Council seats shall be allocated to candidates running for council in the order of their registration on the lists, beginning with the list which received most votes.

(6) If there is more than one candidate with the same number of votes for the last non-allocated seat, the District Electoral Council shall allocate the seat by drawing of lots. This fact shall be recorded in the minutes.

(7) If a political party, electoral bloc of parties is being allocated a number of mandates exceeding the number of candidates on its list, the extra numbers from the descending row of the respective organisation shall be eliminated and replaced by descending numbers of other candidates.

(8) If only independent candidates were included in the ballot paper for the election of the councils, the District Electoral Council shall draw up a list candidates with the number of votes received by them in descending order and allocate each candidate one mandate until the mandates are being finished.

(9) Candidates included in the lists but not elected shall be declared alternate candidates. When a councillor mandate belonging to a political party, electoral bloc of parties becomes vacant before the end of term, it will be allocated to one of the alternate candidates of the respective political party or electoral bloc of parties, in the order of their inclusion in the list. If the list of alternate candidates is finished, the replacement of the vacant seat shall be done by restoring the descending row, excluding the respective electoral competitor and including the decreasing number of another electoral competitor in the row.

(10) If the seat allocated to an independent candidate becomes vacant, the vacancy shall be completed by restoring the descending row, excluding the number belonging to the respective candidate and including the number following in the row.

(11) If only independent candidates are included on the ballot papers, in the event of a vacant seat, the alternate candidate shall be allocated the seat, under paragraph (10).

(12) Seats to alternate candidates shall be allocated by the Central Electoral Commission, under this Article, the Regulation approved by the Central Electoral Commission decision and based on documents held by the Commission.