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Elections in Luxembourg are held to determine the political composition of the representative institutions of theGrand Duchy of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is aliberalrepresentative democracy, withuniversal suffrage guaranteed underits constitution. Elections are held regularly, and are considered to be fair and free.
Separate elections are held to elect representatives atmunicipal, national andEuropean levels. The main institution to which members are elected is theChamber of Deputies, the nationallegislature and the sole source of membership,confidence andsupply of the government. Luxembourg is represented by sixMEPs to theEuropean Parliament, who are elected simultaneously with elections held in otherEuropean Union member states.
The country has amulti-party system, traditionally defined by the existence of three large political parties: theChristian Social People's Party (CSV), theDemocratic Party (DP), and theLuxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP). Historically, the three parties have won a large majority of the votes between them, but their total percentage has fallen recently, such that two additional parties,The Greens and theAlternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) have recorded over 8% of votes at each of last two legislative elections. The CSV and its predecessor (Party of the Right) has provided thePrime Minister for all but 12 years since 1918, and has always been the largest party in the legislature. In this respect, Luxembourg has certain features of adominant-party system, although coalition governments are the norm and the previous two governments from 2013 to 2023 did not involve the CSV.
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
| Christian Social People's Party | 1,099,427 | 29.21 | 21 | |
| Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party | 711,890 | 18.91 | 11 | |
| Democratic Party (Luxembourg) | 703,833 | 18.70 | 14 | |
| Alternative Democratic Reform Party | 348,990 | 9.27 | 5 | |
| The Greens (Luxembourg) | 321,895 | 8.55 | 4 | |
| Pirate Party Luxembourg | 253,554 | 6.74 | 3 | |
| The Left (Luxembourg) | 147,839 | 3.93 | 2 | |
| Fokus (Luxembourg) | 93,839 | 2.49 | 0 | |
| Liberté - Fräiheet! | 42,643 | 1.13 | 0 | |
| Communist Party of Luxembourg | 24,275 | 0.64 | 0 | |
| The Conservatives (Luxembourg) | 8,494 | 0.23 | 0 | |
| Volt Luxembourg | 7,001 | 0.19 | 0 | |
| Total | 3,763,680 | 100.00 | 60 | |
Luxembourg's electoral system operates on the basis ofcompulsory voting, with a few exceptions. Luxembourg citizens aged under 75 years who reside in Luxembourg are required to vote, unless they reside in a different municipality from the one in which they are called to vote.[1]
Luxembourg citizens aged over 75 years, as well as Luxembourg citizens of any age who do not reside in Luxembourg, are not required to vote. If they choose to register to vote, voting becomes mandatory for them. Non-Luxembourg citizens who are eligible to vote in municipal and/or European Parliament elections are not automatically required to vote; however, if they choose to register to vote, voting becomes mandatory for them. The failure of a person to vote when required to law to do so is punishable upon the first offence by a fine of between €100 and €250. A repeat offence within 5 years is punishable by a fine of between €500 and €1,000.[2]
Luxembourg's national legislature is theunicameralChamber of Deputies (LuxembourgishChamber,French:Chambre des députés,German:Abgeordnetenkammer). The Chamber has 60 members, known as 'deputies', elected for a five-year term in four multi-seatconstituencies, known as 'circonscriptions'. Seats are allocated byproportional representation, using theHagenbach-Bischoff system. The most recent election took place inOctober 2023 and the next is scheduled for 2028.[3][4]
To be eligible to vote in elections to the Chamber of Deputies, one must fulfil the following criteria:
In addition to the criteria outlined above, a person standing for election to the Chamber of Deputies must be resident in Luxembourg. Furthermore, judges and members of theCouncil of State cannot stand for election.[5]
Deputies are elected from four constituencies ('circonscriptions'). They are arranged geographically, as combinations of the twelve traditionalcantons. The four circonscriptions areCentre,Est,Nord andSud.[5]
As the constituencies are based on geographical regions and traditional borders, they have greatly differing populations. To reflect this, each constituency elects a different number of deputies; Sud, with 40% of the national population, elects 23 deputies, whilst Est, with only 12% of the population, elects seven. Voters can cast as many votes as their constituency elects deputies (so voters residing in Est can vote for up to seven candidates), which may be spread acrossparty lists or concentrated in one single party.[5]
The seats are allocated according to theHagenbach-Bischoff system.[6]
| |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Christian Social People's Party | 1,099,427 | 29.21 | 21 | 0 | |
| Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party | 711,890 | 18.91 | 11 | +1 | |
| Democratic Party | 703,833 | 18.70 | 14 | +2 | |
| Alternative Democratic Reform Party | 348,990 | 9.27 | 5 | +1 | |
| The Greens | 321,895 | 8.55 | 4 | –5 | |
| Pirate Party Luxembourg | 253,554 | 6.74 | 3 | +1 | |
| The Left | 147,839 | 3.93 | 2 | 0 | |
| Fokus | 93,839 | 2.49 | 0 | New | |
| Liberté - Fräiheet! [lb] | 42,643 | 1.13 | 0 | New | |
| Communist Party of Luxembourg | 24,275 | 0.64 | 0 | 0 | |
| The Conservatives | 8,494 | 0.23 | 0 | 0 | |
| Volt Luxembourg | 7,001 | 0.19 | 0 | New | |
| Total | 3,763,680 | 100.00 | 60 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 231,344 | 92.55 | |||
| Invalid votes | 10,735 | 4.29 | |||
| Blank votes | 7,889 | 3.16 | |||
| Total votes | 249,968 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 286,711 | 87.18 | |||
| Source:Government of Luxembourg | |||||
 | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(July 2024) |
Since 1979, Luxembourg has elected members to theEuropean Parliament,[5] which is the primary representative body of the EU, and, with theCouncil of the European Union, forms its legislative branch. Due to its small size, the Grand Duchy elects just six members out of a total of 732, which is more than onlyMalta (which elects five MEPs); nonetheless, Luxembourg's representation is disproportionately large compared to its population, and Luxembourg elects more MEPs per capita than any other country (see:Apportionment in the European Parliament).
MEPs are elected to five-year terms. The exact date of elections is decided by Luxembourg, allowing it to schedule them on the same date as elections to the Chamber of Deputies (as is usually the case).[5]
To be eligible to vote in elections to the European Parliament, one must fulfil the following criteria:
In addition to the criteria outlined above, any person standing for election to the European Parliament to represent Luxembourg must be resident in Luxembourg. There is one extra requirement for non-Luxembourgish citizens: they must be in full possession of their political rights in both Luxembourg and their Member State of citizenship.[8]
The seats are allocated according to theD'Hondt method.
Eachcommune (municipality) has an elected communal council. The number of councillors varies from 7 to 19 based on the number of inhabitants; the exception being theCity of Luxembourg whosecommunal council consists of 27 members.
The councillors are directly elected every six years on the second Sunday of October. The last elections were held on 11 June 2023. The law of 15 December 2017 further defines that if the parliamentary and communal elections coincide, the latter are held in June of that year.
The referendum was introduced into theConstitution of Luxembourg by the constitutional amendment of 1919.[9] The Constitution mentions the referendum in Article 51:[9] "Voters will be asked to vote by way of referendum in the cases and under the conditions determined by law." The only details on the carrying out of referendums are found in Article 114, which deals with constitutional amendments.[9] There are no other provisions regarding referendums in Luxembourg.
A constitutional amendment must first be passed by a two-thirds absolutesuper-majority of the Parliament, and then:
Referendum on constitutional amendments (defined in Article 114) are binding. Referendums in general (defined in Article 51) are not explicitly stated as be binding.
The general framework of the organisational arrangements of referendums is established by the Law of 4 February 2005 on national referendums.[9]
There have been four referendums in Luxembourg since 1919:
None of the referendums were constitutional amendments, so were non-binding.
| General elections | |
|---|---|
| Communal elections | |
| European elections | |
| Referendums | |
* Partial elections | |
