Presidents are directly elected in only a minority of the established democracies. Since voters throughout the nation choose a single person in these elections, special barriers are needed to ensure that the ballot paper includes only 'serious' contenders, and does not confuse the voters with a profusion of names.
This entry summarizes:
- the processes by which political parties choose their presidential nominees, and
- the legal barriers imposed on those who wish to have their names included on the ballot.
Political Parties' Selection of Presidential Candidates
Austin Ranney's study of candidate selection includes this summary of conclusions based on a review of the selection of presidential candidates in five countries: Colombia, Finland, France, the United States and Venezuela:
[P]residential candidate selection is generally much more fluid, changing and ad hoc than is the selection of parliamentary candidates. Party organizations are less important, and candidate-centred organizations are much more important. The selection of controversial candidates by the victory of one faction over another is more likely to result in open party splits and secessional candidacies. Many of these differences no doubt stem mainly from the special visibility of the presidential office (which in every presidential country is far greater than that of any legislator) and from the close attention paid by the mass media to contests for presidential nominations.8
It is necessary to consider both the ways in which individual parties go about agreeing on a presidential nominee, and also the ways in which political parties in multi-party systems negotiate with each other. Since there are only two significant parties in the United States, negotiations between parties are usually unnecessary: the Republican nominee contests the choice of the Democrats. However, it is different in multi-party systems, such as that in France. Here there is a strong incentive for a group of parties to agree on a single candidate, as a candidate representing a block of parties stands a good chance of defeating a divided set of rivals bearing the standards of individual parties.
As far as the choice of the nominee within parties is concerned, the normal methods involve either a nominating convention at which officials of local party organizations are represented, or a system of primary elections, or a mixture of the two. In African countries, political parties normally nominate their respective presidential candidates, generally during party congresses.
The United States is an example of the mixed use of a nominating convention and primaries. The candidate is chosen at a national nominating convention. However, the delegates are selected by a variety of means. Some are office-holders of state party organizations, but many others have been chosen in special primary elections held in most states to select delegates who are then committed to vote for a particular contender. Selection of delegates through primaries appears to be a more democratic method than selection of office-holders of state party organizations, and avoids the legal quarrels about the validity of delegate selections when they are decided in ordinary party meetings.
However, the method of selection of delegates through primaries has been criticized on the grounds that only a small, unusually strident proportion of party supporters votes in primaries. Also, selection through primaries is criticized for removing party office-holders of the party - those who have greatest experience and the greatest stake in the future electoral success - from authority over the selection process. It other words, primary elections foster a candidate-centred, rather than a party-centred method of selection, and thereby weaken the party structure.
Finland and France illustrate the process concerning methods of negotiation between potentially allied parties in multi-party systems. In Finland, individual parties elect delegates to a cross-party nominating convention. There, bargaining takes place among the parties, and politicians who hope to win must seek the support of delegates of parties other than their own.
In France, there is a two-ballot system of presidential elections. This allows rival candidates from within the political right, or the political left, to put themselves forward in the first ballot. The first ballot thus functions as a sort of national primary election in which a single champion will emerge from both left and right, and these champions will then participate in the second ballot.
Requirements for Nominating Presidential Candidates
In the United States, presidential contests must also follow the rules restricting access to the ballot by candidates of parties other than the Republicans and the Democrats. In practice, this makes access especially hard for presidential elections, since the independent candidate will need to work to meet the requirements of each separate state, see Signatures.
In other countries, access to the ballot involves greater barriers for presidential candidates than for legislature candidates. In Russia,
[a]n electoral association, electoral block or initiative voters' group which has nominated a candidate for the office of President ... must collect no less than one million voters' signatures in his/her support, with no more than seven per cent of the required total number of signatures falling on one subject of the Russian Federation...
In the event the election of President of the Russian Federation is conducted early, the number of voters' signatures to be collected ... shall be reduced by one half.
The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation within ten days from the day of receipt of documents shall review and decide whether the procedure of nomination ... meets the requirements of this Federal Law and make a decision on the registration of candidates or a reasonable decision of refusal to register, within 50 days.9
For more information see also Processing of Nominations.
Draft Only
