Electoral reform
Making our democracy more resilient.
Recent elections have shown that we can no longer take stability and democracy for a given. From the Brexit referendum and influence of Cambridge Analytica to the Romanian presidential elections and influence of TikTok, in today’s increasingly hostile geopolitical climate, legislators should not be naive to assume that foreign actors will try to sway public opinion in their interest. In the case of Europe, this means stopping European integration and sowing division. Democracy is not helpless but it needs to become more resilient and inclusive.
Volt Sloveniaa proposes:
Representativeness
Introduce ranked choice voting and allow citizens to rank parties in elections instead of choosing a single party. If the first choice does not reach the electoral threshold, the vote is counted for the 2nd, 3rd and further choices until a choice passes the threshold. This avoids situations as in the last parliament elections, where 24% of the population voted for a party that did not pass the electoral threshold and thus ended up without political representation.
Inclusiveness
Introduce electronic and postal voting. Accessibility is the first step to increasing participation and all citizens should have the possibility to vote for their elected representatives no matter whether at home or abroad.
With significant parts of the Slovenian population living abroad and often not being able to vote in their country of residence, introduce foreign voting districts following the french model to ensure Slovenians abroad have a political voice and representation. If other countries also grant full voting rights without having to change nationality, give Slovenian citizens the choice to vote in their country of residence or origin.
Grant full voting rights to EU citizens after 24 months of continuous residence and two subsequent annual tax declarations without requiring reciprocity. We should use a commitment to “no taxation without representation” as a factor to attract mobile EU citizens to settle in Slovenia and push for other EU member states to do the same.
Resilience
Prohibit any form of paid political advertising in online or classic media six months before an election date including paid endorsements. Elections and public opinion should not be won by the deepest pockets.
Allocate minimum quotas in public and private television and radio to all parties running in an election and limit their broadcasts to regular hours between 6am and midnight.
Party financing
Introduce the obligation for any person or independent entity (such as associations) providing financial or other support to one or more political parties to transparently list all sources of income. It should for example not be possible that an association takes out loans from unknown individuals to loan them to a political party or that an association can pay political advertising for a party.
(Version 2025-02)