Page:The Constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic.pdf/8

 number of seats equivalent to the number of times that the “election number” is contained in the sum total of votes obtained by the party.

The candidates belonging to the different parties are allotted the seats which fall to those parties, in the order in which their names appear on the lists of candidates. If a list of candidates printed as a ballot paper differs from the original list handed in to the Electoral Committee of the Constituency, the contents and the order of the names of the original list have priority.

Seats not assigned at the first scrutiny are alloted eight days after the completion of the elections throughout the whole Republic, by a Central Electoral Committee attached to the Ministry of the Interior. This is the second scrutiny.

Before the commencement of the second scrutiny such members of the Central Electoral Committee as are party agents present to the Chairman of the CommitteCommittee [sic] the lists of candidates of their respective parties: these lists may contain the names of any number of candidates, yet only of those who have already sought election in some constituency and failed to be elected at the first scrutiny.

At the second scrutiny consideration is given only to the votes of parties which in at least one constituency obtained 20.000 votes (or the “electoral number”, should this be less than 20.000) and which presented a list of candidates for the second scrutiny.

The Committee counts the votes remaining over, obtained by the different parties together throughout the Republic, and ascertains the necessary quotient (the “electoral number”). This number is, in this case, the round sum irrespective of any remainder, which is arrived at by dividing the total of all votes remaining over from the first scrutiny by the number of seats to be filled, plus one.

The Committee allots to each party a number of seats corresponding to the number of times that the “electoral number” is contained in the surplus of votes given to the party in all the constituencies taken together.

If, at the second scrutiny all the seats are not allotted, the Committee assigns one seat each to those parties which have the largest remainders of votes still left. This is known as the third scrutiny.

Here, too, the candidates of the various parties are taken in the order in which their name appear on the lists.

All the candidates who have failed to obtain election at the 1$st$, 2$nd$ or 3$rd$ scrutiny are “reserves”. That is to say, if a seat becomes vacant, no bye-election takes place, but a “reserve” candidate of the same party as the late member automatically succeeds to his seat. The “reserve”