Komunální volby klamou. Krátké zastavení nad problematickými aspekty volebního systému pro obecní zastupitelstva
Tomáš Lebeda
Municipal elections are misleading. Short stop the problematic aspects of the electoral system for municipalThis article is focused on the problematic characteristics of the Czech electoral system applied for the local council elections. We can recognize three different problems. First off, Czech voters largely do not understand the mechanism of electoral system well. They assume that they can vote for individual candidates but in reality this kind of vote is the vote for their party not for particular candidates. This misunderstanding leads to contradiction between voters expectations of electoral system way of working on the one hand and the real process of seats allocation on the other hand. Second problem is based on specific rules of the seats allocation inside party list. Current electoral system allows candidate who receives less votes than other candidates to gain a seat. More over the weakest candidate inside the party list can be elected unlike of all stronger party mates. Third problem is connected with electoral result interpretation. Beside the results inside every single local community politicians and media also pay attention to national result of local elections. They deduce conclusions from it about party support and chances to win general elections. But national result of local elections is not easy interpretable. Voters have different number of votes depending on the number of their local council deputies. It means for example that voter in capital Prague has 70 votes unlike of another voter living in a small village with only 7 votes. This article also answers how to interpret the national result of local elections correctly.
