Electoral system family

OSCE/ODIHR Election Expert Team Report on 2012 Parliamentary elections.

Pages 4-5

“The Romanian Parliament is bicameral withan undetermined number of deputies and senators elected for four-year terms. Atotal of 311 single-member districts for the lower house, the Chamber ofDeputies, and 135 single-member districts for the upper house, the Senate, areestablished across 42 counties on the basis of a legally established quota.3 Candidatesrun in single-member districts and are elected either by obtaining an absolutemajority of votes or through mandate allocation designed to ensure proportionalrepresentation at the national and county levels.

Mandates are firstallocated to candidates who obtain an absolute majority of valid votes cast intheir single-member districts. The remaining seats are distributed by the greatestremainder formula, first at the county level and then nationally among theparties or organizations that cross the national threshold: five per cent ofvalid votes cast nationwide or, alternatively, six deputy and three senateseats won by absolute majority. The additional allocation of mandates to ensurethe proportional representation of each party or coalition results in the totalnumber of mandates changing from one election to another. In these elections,an additional 97 deputy and 39 Senate mandates were allocated.”