Start date February 10, 2013 | ||
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General elections were held in Monaco on 10 February 2013. The result was a victory for the Horizon Monaco alliance, which won 20 of the 24 seats in the National Council.
Contents
Electoral system
Voters can either choose a party list or choose candidates from various lists ("panachage") for the 24 seats. The 16 candidates with the most votes are elected (with the older candidate breaking possible ties in votes). The eight other seats are chosen from lists in accordance with the proportional representation system for parties that have at least five percent of votes.
Parties
The election was contested by two alliances, Horizon Monaco and Union Monégasque, as well as Renaissance, a party whose candidates were all employees of SBM. Horizon Monaco was an alliance of Rassemblement et Enjeux, the Union for the Principality and Synergie Monegasque, whilst Union Monégasque consisted of the Union de Monégasques and the National Union for the Future of Monaco. A total of 72 candidates contested the election.
Campaign
An unnamed official of the administration team said: "We have had three lists before, as in 2008, but they were never full. We must therefore revise certain aspects, such as the voting cards, where the 72 names must be listed." Renaissance said that it seeks achievable goals instead of new policies. The party said that is sought representation in parliament "to defend the interests of the SBM workers in Monaco." Horizon Monaco's leader Laurent Nouvion told Monaco Matin: "I am very calm. I am more determined than ever to secure the future of Monaco and its compatriots. I believe that our campaign has been clean and honest. We tried as hard as possible to connect to the Monegasque people and to respond to their concerns. This is the heart of our commitment. For me and my fellow candidates, this campaign has brought us even closer together and given us the sense of being a real team, just like a sports team....Adversity has strengethened our relationship." Union Monégasque's leader Jean-François Robillon said: "We have worked hard at this long campaign. We are here to make plans for the future, not to abuse our adversaries, frighten the population and create an atmosphere of hatred... This has been our goal throughout the campaign: we have sought to promote our programme while avoiding aggressive confrontation."
Observers
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe was invited by Monaco's ambassador to OSCE and sent a team of four observers from four countries led by Poland's Konrad Olszewski. They arrived on 30 January and will depart on 13 February.
Election
Buses and car parks were free of charge in order to encourage voter turnout. A total of 6,824 people are registered to vote. An 18-metre screen will broadcast the result at the only voting centre at Salle du Canton from 8:00 - 19:00 with the result expected between 4:00-4:30 the next day.