Table Of ContentELECTIONSINTHEAMERICAS
ADATAHANDBOOK
Elections in the Americas continues the series of election data handbooks
published by Oxford University Press. Together with Elections in Asia and
the Pacific and Elections in Africa, this is a highly reliable resource for
historicalandcross-nationalcomparisonsofelectionsandelectoralsystems
world-wide.
Elections in the Americas
A Data Handbook
VOLUME I
North America, Central America,
and the Caribbean
Editedby
DIETER NOHLEN
1
3
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Preface
This two-volume work is the third installment in the series of election
data handbooks published by Oxford University Press. Five years after
the publication of the first title, Elections in Africa and three years after
the publication of Elections in Asia and the Pacific, I now present the
first compendium of electoral data that includes all American countries,
from the introduction of universal male suffrage to the present day. The
final part of the series Elections Worldwide, covering elections in
Europe, is currently underway.
The basic idea of these handbooks—systematic and historically com-
plete documentation of elections in all countries worldwide—is almost
40 years old. The idea was born in the early 1960s, when Dolf Sternber-
ger and Bernhard Vogel embarked on an extensive research project on
the election of parliaments at the University of Heidelberg (Wahl der
Parlamente und anderer Staatsorgane). Since then, several research
projects on elections and electoral systems have been carried out in Hei-
delberg, including empirical and theoretical publications covering the
entire world. In 1978 a voluminous work on Africa was published under
the subtitle Politische Organisation und Repräsentation in Afrika (Po-
litical Organization and Representation in Africa). In the same year I
finished Wahlsysteme der Welt (Electoral Systems of the World), inter-
nationally better known in its Spanish version (Sistemas electorales del
mundo, 1981). In the late 1980s an international research team under my
direction began working on parliamentary and presidential elections in
Latin America and the Caribbean. The main result concerning electoral
data was published in 1993 in German (Handbuch der Wahldaten
Lateinamerikas und der Karibik) and in Spanish (Enciclopedia Elec-
toral Latinoamericana y del Caribe). A new project on elections and
democratization in Africa and Latin America started in 1996. This pro-
ject provided an ideal framework to revive the old idea of a worldwide
compendium of electoral data.
The first book in this new series was Elections in Africa (1999), ed-
ited by Dieter Nohlen, Michael Krennerich, and Bernhard Thibaut, fol-
lowed by Elections in Asia and the Pacific (2001), edited by Dieter
Nohlen, Florian Grotz, and Christof Hartmann.
Elections in the Americas is based on our previous work Handbuch
der Wahldaten. But even so, most of the articles required a lot of time
and energy in their elaboration: Collecting the relevant information, fit-
vi
ting the quantitative and qualitative data into a strict series of guidelines
and often recalculating national data according to our standards. The
editorial team demanded a great deal of patience from the authors, who
had to answer never-ending questions. Such a work produces an appar-
ently paradoxical outcome: The more time spent on enhancing an arti-
cle, the clearer and simpler it finally appears to the reader.
I am deeply grateful to the 31 contributors from more then ten differ-
ent countries for their cooperation, patience, and encouragement. We
have learnt a lot from them in these three years and their empathy with
this project has become a decisive stimulus for us.
I am also especially grateful to those individuals and organizations
that made this book possible. First of all, I owe much to my editorial
team in Heidelberg: Matthias Catón, Philip Stöver, and Matthias Trefs
have tirelessly edited the articles and collected and standardized the
relevant information. Katrin Falk, Julia Leininger, Arthur Mickoleit,
Florian Rehli, and Johannes Schwehm helped in different phases of the
project and Dominique Le Cocq provided most valuable help in revising
the English version.
I would also like to thank the Institut für Politische Wissenschaft (In-
stitute of Political Science) at the University of Heidelberg for accom-
modating the project, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems
(IFES) in Washington, the Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Hu-
manos (IIDH; Inter-American Institute for Human Rights) in Costa
Rica, especially its Center for Electoral Assistance and Promotion
(CAPEL), and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral
Assistance (IDEA) in Stockholm. I am also indebted to the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; German Research Foundation), which
supported the production of the typescript financially.
Finally, I thank Dominic Byatt and Claire Croft at Oxford University
Press for their encouragement and professional support. Working with
them has been a pleasure.
Heidelberg, February 2005 Dieter Nohlen
Contents
Notes on the Editor and the Contributors ...............................................ix
Technical Notes......................................................................................xv
Elections and Electoral Systems in the Americas (D. Nohlen)................1
Antigua and Barbuda (B. Hillebrands/ J. Schwehm) .............................61
Bahamas (B. Hillebrands/ J. Schwehm).................................................73
Barbados (B. Hillebrands/ K. Falk)........................................................85
Belize (B. Hillebrands/ R. Ortiz Ortiz)...................................................97
Canada (R. Lindner/ R.-O. Schultze)...................................................109
Costa Rica (D. Zovatto)........................................................................147
Cuba (J. Suter/ D. Nohlen)...................................................................195
Dominica (M. Catón) ...........................................................................223
Dominican Republic (J. Brea Franco)..................................................239
El Salvador (M. Krennerich)................................................................269
Grenada (C. Baukhage/ B. Hillebrands)...............................................301
Guatemala (P. Bendel/ M. Krennerich)................................................317
Guyana (M. Trefs)................................................................................353
Haiti (F. Ulloa).....................................................................................373
Honduras (A. Somoza).........................................................................399
Jamaica (A. M. Wüst)...........................................................................423
Mexico (D. Nohlen) .............................................................................439
Nicaragua (M. Krennerich) ..................................................................479
Panama (P. Bendel/ M. Krennerich/ C. Zilla)......................................511
Puerto Rico (D. Nohlen).......................................................................543
Saint Kitts and Nevis (B. Hillebrands/ J. Schwehm) ...........................569
Saint Lucia (B. Hillebrands/ D. Nohlen)..............................................581
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (B. Hillebrands/ M. Trefs) ............595
Suriname (P. Stöver) ............................................................................607
Trinidad and Tobago (M. Catón) .........................................................627
United States of America (R. Lindner/ R.-O. Schultze).......................647
Glossary ...............................................................................................731
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Notes on the Editor and the Contributors
Editor
DIETER NOHLEN is professor of political science at the University of
Heidelberg and a well-known expert on electoral systems, political de-
velopment, and democratization with a focus on Latin America. He re-
ceived the Max Planck prize for internationally outstanding research in
1991, and the University of Augsburg prize for research on Spain and
Latin America in 2000. His numerous books include Wahlsysteme der
Welt (1978; Spanish edition 1981), Elections and Electoral Systems
(1996), Wahlrecht und Parteiensystem (4th edn. 2004), Sistemas elec-
torales y partidos politicos (3rd edn. 2004). He is editor of a seven-
volume encyclopedia Lexikon der Politik (1992–1998), and co-editor of
Tratado de Derecho Electoral Comparado de América Latina (1998;
2nd edn. 2005) as well as of an eight-volume Handbook of the Third
World (3rd edn. 1991–1994), and a two volume encyclopedia of politi-
cal science, Lexikon der Politikwissenschaft (2nd edn. 2004, Spanish
edn. 2005). [E-mail: [email protected]]
Contributors
CHRISTIAN BAUKHAGE holds a Master degree in political science and
history from the University of Heidelberg (2003), where he has also
been working as a research associate. His research focuses on the role of
micro-states in international organisations, conflicts in Sub-Saharan Af-
rica and the process of European integration. He is currently working for
the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [E-mail: [email protected]]
PETRA BENDEL is the managing director of the Central Institute for Area
and Regional Studies at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Ger-
many and has worked on subjects focusing on both Latin America and
Europe. She has published and edited several books, such as: Central
America. Peace, Development and Democracy? (1993), Party Systems
in Central America (1996), The MERCOSUR (1999), Between Democ-
ratisation and Dictatorship (2000), In the Shadow of Terrorism, about
