This question was posted by ACE on behalf of ACE user David Kuennen.

Original Question:

I am conducting research on local elections in Myanmar, where universal suffrage has not yet been introduced. In some local elections (e.g. Ward and Village Tract Administrators, Yangon City Development Committee, and Chin State Township Development Affairs Committee), only heads-of-household or a single household designee are allowed to vote. In others (e.g. most states/regions' TDACs), the process is indirect, where a small number of local leaders are the only electors.

I am looking for comparative information from other countries to help demonstrate how rare such an arrangement is for elections today.

Note: an earlier question on this topic did not generate many responses, so please do not limit your response to examples where one-vote-per-household is used. Instead, please also share examples of any current or recently removed limits to universal suffrage (other than age, residency, imprisonment, and mental incapacity) and/or examples of indirect election systems in which the lowest level of election restricts universal suffrage in some way.

For example:

·         In the United Arab Emirates in 2011, the government selected 129,000 electors (~12 percent of Emerati nationals) to elect half of the members of the Federal National Council.

·         In Somalia, ongoing elections to the House of the People (lower house) are being decided by 14,025 total electors (51 per constituency), who have been selected by local elders.

·         In Saudi Arabia, restrictions against women voting were removed for local elections in 2015.

Summary of responses:

Practitioners reiterated the importance of universal suffrage as an integral element of democracy while acknowledging the difficulties it can present in practice.

A key example of a case in which universal suffrage is desired but cannot be implemented in practice is Somalia, where security concerns, limited institutional capacity and lack of supporting a legal framework necessitated an indirect electoral system for the 2016 and 2017 election cycles. One practitioner highlights the additional difficulties associated with indirect elections and how they are far simpler to hold in a society with a clear social structure, such as the clan system found in Somalia.

Practitioners provide Ecuador and Cameroon as examples of nations which have indirect elections or limited compulsory universal suffrage. In Cameroon, seventy of the one hundred regional senators are indirectly elected by municipal councilors and the remaining thirty are appointed by the head of state. Under Ecuador’s 1978 Electoral Law and the 2008 constitution, voting is compulsory for Ecuadorian citizens who are literate, between the ages of 18 and 65, and reside in country. Voting is optional for those living abroad, members of the armed forces or police, and seniors. There is no indirect voting in Ecuador.

Contributing members:

Francisco Morales Gomez

David Pottie

Sossoukpe Sylvain

Achuh Owen Teheng

David Kuennen

En Ecuador- Sudamérica la arquitectura juridica electoral que se ha venido implementando desde el año 1978 en que se aprobò una de las Constituciones Políticas y determino la expediciòn de nuevas leyes electorales establecen que solamente se requiere saber leer y escribir para ser elector, ciudadano que ejerce su derecho al sufragio, no se consideró el voto d€los analfabetos y de los ecuatorianos domiciliados en el exterior. En la Constitución Política de 2008, se introducen otras formas de votación directa: obligatoria para todos los ciudadanos que se encuentran entre los 18 y 65 años de edad. Se acepta el voto facultativo( opcional) para los ciudadanos de 16 hasta antes que cumplan los 18 años; los domiciliados en el exterior, los miembros de las Fuerzas Armadas y Policía; las personas de la tercera, los discapacitados, los privados de la libertad que no tengan sentencia en firme- ya que la existencia de sentencia condenatoria les impida ejercer los derechos políticos se encuentra prohibido en nuestra legislación-. En nuestro caso no tenemos el sistema de votaciones indirectas, por medio de colegios electorales para los dignatarios. Hay autoridades de los organismos de control como Contraloria General del Estado, Fiscal General, Superintendentes de Bancos, Compañías, miembros de los Organismos Electorales se lo hacen por medio de Concurso Públicos de Oposición y Méritos, los cuales se seleccionan por dichas características y son posesionados por la Asamblea Nacional ( Congreso). Las elecciones indirectas requieren de elementos de organización mucho más técnicos, ya que entran en juego no solamente variables y polìticas poblacionales, geográficas, históricas en cuanto a la formación social y expresiones de dirección comunitaria entre otras. 

En Ecuador- Sudamérica la arquitectura juridica electoral que se ha venido implementando desde el año 1978 en que se aprobò una de las Constituciones Políticas y determino la expediciòn de nuevas leyes electorales establecen que solamente se requiere saber leer y escribir para ser elector, ciudadano que ejerce su derecho al sufragio, no se consideró el voto d€los analfabetos y de los ecuatorianos domiciliados en el exterior. En la Constitución Política de 2008, se introducen otras formas de votación directa: obligatoria para todos los ciudadanos que se encuentran entre los 18 y 65 años de edad. Se acepta el voto facultativo( opcional) para los ciudadanos de 16 hasta antes que cumplan los 18 años; los domiciliados en el exterior, los miembros de las Fuerzas Armadas y Policía; las personas de la tercera, los discapacitados, los privados de la libertad que no tengan sentencia en firme- ya que la existencia de sentencia condenatoria les impida ejercer los derechos políticos se encuentra prohibido en nuestra legislación-. En nuestro caso no tenemos el sistema de votaciones indirectas, por medio de colegios electorales para los dignatarios. Hay autoridades de los organismos de control como Contraloria General del Estado, Fiscal General, Superintendentes de Bancos, Compañías, miembros de los Organismos Electorales se lo hacen por medio de Concurso Públicos de Oposición y Méritos, los cuales se seleccionan por dichas características y son posesionados por la Asamblea Nacional ( Congreso). Las elecciones indirectas requieren de elementos de organización mucho más técnicos, ya que entran en juego no solamente variables y polìticas poblacionales, geográficas, históricas en cuanto a la formación social y expresiones de dirección comunitaria entre otras. 

Somalia has been conducting a political/electoral process since late 2016 (ongoing in early 2017) that blends a system of selection and (limited) election by secret ballot.  Although the provisional constitution calls for universal suffrage these provisions and supporting legal framework have not been implemented. The outgoing federal parliament of 275 members was selected by 135 designated traditional elders in 2012 through a process of politically negotiated government based on the clan system and a the "4.5 formula" which applied equal shares to the four dominant clans and a half share to the remaining minority clans.

The 2016 process retains these basic elements in a modified and expanded form.  In the intervening years there has been a process of state formation at federal and state level. Interim states have been formed and established unelected state assemblies (on a clan basis) who elected state presidents from among their members.  For 2016 these state presidents nominated a prescribed number of candidates for the federal upper house of parliament (Senate) and members of the respective state assemblies elected the senators.

The lower house of parliament (House of the People) was elected on the basis of a more extensive voter base but one that is far from universal.  The 135 elders selected (following intra-clan consultation) 51 electors for each of the 275 seats in the HoP. These electors (some 14,025 maximum) formed an electoral college who were then convened to elect MPs by secret ballot. MPs do not represent constituencies but sub-clan groupings. There is no political party system but legislation was passed by the outgoing parliament that requires all incoming MPs to join a party within two years.

The election of the federal president is conducted internally by the members of the joint houses of federal parliament.

Some observers characterise the Somali process as a political selection process with electoral elements. Universal elections on the basis of one person one vote are slated for 2020 but this goal relies on achievement of an ambitious agenda of constitutional and legislative progress, institutional development, civic education, peace and security reform.

Le suffrage universel est un des socles de la démocratie et constitue un baromètre de cette dernière. C'est bien dommage que dans certain démocratique des franges de la population n'ont jamais voté. Si génial il apparait, le suffrage universel demande une maturité du peuple et est lié à un code conduct soutenue de l'élécteur qui sera appelé à voter. Les régime de condamnation,de non émancipation,et autre mesures stipulées dans la constitution constituent des limites au suffrage universel.En dehors du sus-mentionné, les autres formes de restriction constituent une violation à la démocratie sinon un choix de démocratie, en tout cas pas intégrale.

Thank you, Achuh Owen Teheng, for your reply. Could you please clarify whether the Municipal Councilors who elect 70 of the 100 Senators in each region are themselves elected? And, if so, are they elected through universal suffrage elections?  Thanks again, - David.