Access to Electoral Rights - Paraguay

LÓPEZ, MAGDALENA

2016-04-01/2016-07-15

1-27

Social

Prom.Gral.del Conoc.-Cs.Sociales

Peer reviewed report for European Union Democracy Observatory (EUDO) Citizenship, European Union, European University Institute, University of Edinburgh, University of Sussex.Paraguay had different procedures for voting and electing officials, as much for the period recognized by indigenous dominance as during colonial times, independence, and the current day. In 1911, through an electoral law, legislation was passed regarding the vote for men older than eighteen years of age, changing the system from ?voice vote? to a written vote; this made illiteracy one of the central problems for this voting system (added to other factors of racial, economic, or gender-based, etc. nature). Years later, in 1916, Act No. 223 made the use of ballots mandatory.Paraguay is a unitary country in which, generally, electoral laws and rights come from the national state, which is to say ?from above?. Elections are organized at three levels: National, Departmental [State or Provincial], and Municipal, in addition to an International Level, which consists of voting for representatives who will make up, along with those of other countries, the parliament of the regional union MERCOSUR (the Mercosur Parliament [el Parlasur]).Since the fall of the dictatorship, following the approval of the new political organization (Constitution and democratic laws) there are two periods for holding elections: in one local elections are carried out and in the other all additional levels together. Paraguayan citizens living abroad have the right to vote following the Constitutional Amendment approved in 2011 that modified Article 120 of the constitution, which since 1992 had denied expatriate Paraguayans political rights. Likewise, non-citizens who have permanent residency in Paraguay are eligible to vote (and to be elected) only in municipal elections, as will be detailed later. Legislative elections at all levels use the D?Hondt electoral method and executive elections use the majority system.