General Council of Andorra

General Council of Andorra Consell General d'Andorra
Type
Type	Unicameral
Leadership
General Syndic	Vicenç Mateu Zamora, DA Since 28 April 2011
Structure
Seats	28
Political groups	Democrats for Andorra (15)      Liberal Party of Andorra (8)      Social Democratic Party (3)      Social Democracy and Progress (2)
Elections
Voting system	Mixed Member Majoritarian 14 members by national list PR Two members per parish (Total 14)
Last election	1 March 2015
Meeting place
New Parliament of Andorra Andorra la Vella, Andorra
Website
General Council of Andorra

Mixed Member Majoritarian

The General Council (Catalan: Consell General d'Andorra, IPA: [kunˈsɛʎ ʒənəˈɾaɫ dənˈdorə], locally: [konˈseʎ ʒeneˈɾaɫ danˈdɔra]) is the unicameral parliament of Andorra. It is sometimes referred to as the General Council of the Valleys (Catalan: Consell General de les Valls) because it was the historical name and to distinguish it from similarly named bodies in the Val d'Aran and in France.

There are twenty-eight "general councillors", who are elected for four-year terms based on party lists in a closed list system:

The parish lists and the national list are independent of one another: the same person cannot appear on both the national list and on a parish list, and voters cast two separate ballots (there is no requirement to vote for the same party for both lists).

This is a recent development; originally, the seven parishes had each returned four deputies. However, as parishes varied in population from 350 to 2,500, this was felt to be significantly imbalanced, and the national list system was introduced for the 1997 elections to counter the disproportionate power held by the smallest parishes.

The Council appoints a presiding officer, titled the Síndic general, and a deputy, the subsíndic. The current Síndic general is Vicenç Mateu Zamora of the Democrats for Andorra.

The General Council (subject to approval of the Co-Princes) elects the Head of Government, who presides over the Executive Council. The Head of Government appoints the remaining seven members of the Executive Council. The current Head of Government, is Antoni Martí.

Political parties are a recent innovation; the first party was formed in 1976, and they only gained legal recognition in 1992. The most recent Andorran parliamentary election was March 2015.