When Articles 91, 92, and 94 are read together, it would appear that mandates are allocated to political parties that have reached the two percent (2%) threshold nationally, after individual mandates are distributed to candidates who have valid votes equal to or greater than the electoral quota in the respective territorial election district (provided those candidates are from a political party that reached the 2% threshold nationally). Then, according to Article 94.10, five candidates designated from each political party (to the extent the political party has won the mandates) are given the next mandates “irrespective of the number of votes cast for every one of them in the respective territorial election districts (territorial election district) in the order determined by the parliamentary candidates’ election list in the national election district”. This language gives preferential treatment to these five candidates over all other candidates. After the preferential mandates are awarded to the five chosen by the political party, then the rest of the mandates are awarded to political party candidates (who did not reach the electoral quota in a territorial election district) based on their respective remainders. Although lengthy, the relevant text of Article 94.10 should be carefully considered and is given below:
First and foremost, the parliamentary candidates shall be recognized elected deputies, if the numbers, received as a result of dividing the number of the votes cast for every one of them within the territorial election district by the electoral quota of the territorial election district, are bigger than one or equal one. These deputies shall be recognized elected in the territorial election districts.
Within the received remainder, the number of deputies elected in the territorial election districts is subtracted from the number of mandates, which the party received within the national election district. The parliamentary candidates entered into the parliamentary candidates’ election list from the party in the national election district at the first five ordinal numbers in the amount, which cannot exceed the received remainder and be bigger than five. Such parliamentary candidates are recognized elected irrespective of the number of votes cast for every one of them in the respective territorial election districts (territorial election district) in the order determined by the parliamentary candidates’ election list in the national election district. While determining the respective parliamentary candidates, the candidates who were elected deputies in the territorial election district, shall not be counted. The parliamentary candidates entered into the parliamentary candidates’ election list in the national election district registered at the first five ordinal numbers, who are recognized elected deputies, shall be considered elected in the national election district.
The number of deputies elected in the territorial election districts and the number of parliamentary candidates entered into the parliamentary candidates’ election list in the national election district under the first five ordinal numbers, who are recognized elected, is to be subtracted from the number of mandates the party has obtained within the national election district. Within the received remainder, the parliamentary candidates entered into the party election lists are recognized elected whose numbers, defined in the order established in point 3 part six of Article 91 of this Law, are less than the corresponding numbers defined for other parliamentary candidates entered into the same party election lists, in the amount that equals the received remainder. Should these numbers, defined for two or more parliamentary candidates from such a party be equal, the one recognized elected shall be the parliamentary candidate, for whom the remainder between the number of votes necessary to be elected in the territorial election district, in which they were nominated, is less than the remainder for the parliamentary candidates from the same party, for whom the remainder was defined analogically and whose numbers determined in the order established in point three part six of Article 91 of this Law and point 21 part one of Article 94 of this Law are equal. The parliamentary candidates entered into the party election lists, for whom the numbers defined in the order established by point three part six of Article 91 of this Law and point 21 part one of Article 94 of this Law are less than the corresponding numbers defined for other parliamentary candidates entered into the same party lists and who are recognized elected deputies, shall be recognized elected in the respective territorial election districts.
