Distribution of mandates among winning candidates from the list

(point 6 repealed and point 7 amended by Law No. 101/2020, dated 23 July 2020; amended by Law No. 118/2020, dated 5 October 2020)

1. Immediately after the completion of the calculation of the result under Article 162 of this Code, the CEC shall calculate the distribution of mandates for the winning candidates for each subject.

2. The distribution of mandates shall start by a descending order, based on the candidates’ ranking on the list submitted according to Article 67 of this Code, starting from the ordinal number one, and the number of preferential votes for each candidate pursuant to the following procedures and criteria.

3. Mandates shall be first allocated to the candidates who have received a number of preferential votes higher than the quotient resulting from the division of the number of votes for the subject by the number of mandates won by the [same] subject, under Article 162 of this Code. In any case, the quotient may not be bigger than 10,000 votes. If the quotient obtained from the division is a decimal number, the nearest whole number shall be considered the quotient.

4. The candidates with a higher number of preferential votes than the quotient, according to point 3 of this Article, shall successively replace the candidates on the list with a lower number of preferential votes, who could have [otherwise] won mandates.

5. This rule shall not apply if the candidate with fewer votes belongs to the less represented gender. In this case, the replacement shall pass to the other candidate ranked immediately higher in terms of vote number, until the list is exhausted according to the same criteria. When the candidate with a higher number of votes than the quotient belongs to the same gender, the provisions of point 4 of this Article shall apply.

6. After the exhaustion of the replacement of the candidates according to points 3 and 4 of this Article, the distribution of mandates shall continue with the remaining candidates according to the ordinal number of the list.

7. The remaining candidates on the list, who do not receive mandates according to points 2 to 6 of this Article, shall be reranked based on the number of preferential votes starting from the highest number of votes. When the number of votes is equal, the ranking is determined by lot. Reranking according to this point shall be applied in accordance with Article 164 of this Code.

8. The calculation and distribution of mandates, according to Article 162 and this Article, for each electoral zone, shall be approved by decision. The decision shall be issued for each electoral zone separately. Administrative appeals may be lodged with CSC against this decision.