How are municipal councillors elected? The SP proposes double proportionality with a preferential vote

Under the SP’s new map in the spring of 2027, 46 municipalities go to elections for mayor, while 77 cities will have an appointed deputy mayor, but will not have councils. So that they do not remain unrepresented, the majority intends for them to be represented by members in the council of the large municipality. For this, changes must be made to the law and to the Electoral Code.

A2 CNN has obtained the document of the initiator of the territorial reform, Arbjan Mazniku, addressed to the Electoral Reform Commission, on how to guarantee the representation of the constituent communities and territories in the municipal council.

The Socialist proposes the model of double proportionality, the political one, according to the vote received by an electoral subject, and the territorial one, according to the population weight of each constituent territory.

Mazniku explains the proposed model with an example in a council with 51 seats and three constituent territories of a municipality X. According to the population numbers, he also divides how many seats belong to each territory.

He then argues through an illustration of how the 51 councillor seats were divided for the political parties.

Double distribution is the model that distributes the seats among the territories, respecting the total seats of each territory and the total seats of each subject. If party A in this municipality with 51 seats has won 28 councillors, 20 will belong to the largest unit, 5 to the second and 3 to the smallest unit.

Another question that remains is how will the citizens vote? Mazniku proposes to the Electoral Reform Commission that the councillors be elected by preferential vote, i.e. with open lists. In this way the voter chooses the preferred candidate of that subject for the respective territory. The vote determines who wins the seats assigned to the subject in the respective territory.

This document tasks the Electoral Reform Commission with determining what will be called a territory, a city, a former municipality, an administrative unit or another category defined by law.