FACTBOX - European Parliamentary Election Procedure

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd May, 2019) The citizens of the European Union will elect the European Parliament from May 23-26.

The European Parliament is the legislative body of the European Union.

Currently, the European Parliament consists of 751 members, who are elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year term.

Elections are held from Thursday to Sunday across 28 EU's member states.

Each country sets the day of voting itself.

The minimum age of persons who are entitled to vote in the elections is established by the legislation of the participating countries. As a rule, citizens of the European Union, who have reached the age of 18 years by the election day, have the right to vote. The exceptions are Greece, where the voting age is 17, and Austria and Malta, where the voting age is 16.

The minimum age for a candidate to stand in the European elections varies from 18 to 25 years, depending on the country.

The minimum age to stand for election in Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia is 21 years. In Romania, the minimum age of a candidate is 23 years, while in Italy and Greece the candidate has to be at least 25 years old. In other member states, it is possible to nominate a candidate who is 18 or older.

Citizens of the European Union have the right to stand for election in any EU member state.

All citizens of the European Union, regardless of their country of residence, can vote in the elections to the European Parliament.

In accordance with the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997, the elections of the parliament's members are held on the basis of common principles.

The specificities of the elections, such as the collection of signatures, campaign financing, its duration and others, in each country are governed by local electoral legislation.

The elections are held under a form of proportional representation. Each member state decides whether to use an open or closed lists system. If elections are held on open lists, then voters may express a preference for one or more candidates on the list, and when the voting is held on closed lists, then political parties themselves set the order of the candidates, and the voter votes for the list of candidates.

The closed list system is used in nine countries: Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

In Luxembourg, voters can vote for candidates from different lists; in Sweden, they can add or remove Names from the list. In Ireland, Malta, and Northern Ireland single transferable vote system is applied, which means that the voters list the candidates in order of preference.

Seats are allocated on the basis of population of each member state. At the same time, gender equality must be guaranteed, women should occupy a little more than one third of the seats in the parliament.

The required minimum threshold is between 2 percent and 5 percent. These conditions are fulfilled by: Croatia, the Czech Republic, France (depending on the constituency), Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia (5 percent); Austria, Italy and Sweden (4 percent); Greece (3 percent); and Cyprus (1.8 percent). The other member states apply no threshold.

Both political parties and self-nominated candidates can take part in the elections. Only political parties and political organizations can nominate candidates in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Sweden. In all other EU member states nominations may be submitted if a candidate received the required number of signatures or electors.

In the vast majority of countries, elections to the European Parliament are held in a single constituency. However, in some states � in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom � the territory is divided into a number of regional Constituencies.

Voting is compulsory in only five states: Cyprus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, and Luxembourg.

Voting results can be published only after the closure of all polling stations in all EU member states. In accordance with the 1976 Electoral Act, member states can conduct early voting: postal voting, electronic and online voting.

In almost all states, citizens are given the opportunity to vote from abroad. Some countries require pre-registration with the voter's national electoral authorities in order to be eligible to vote from abroad by post or at an embassy or consulate.

The last elections to the European Parliament were held from May 22-25, 2014, and became the largest transnational elections. The main European political parties for the first time nominated their candidates for a president of the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union.

Due to the fact that the United Kingdom officially notified Brussels about its withdrawal from the European Union, and it was expected that Brexit will occur at the end of March 2019, the European Parliament abolished 46 of the UK's 73 European parliamentary seats. It was planned that the new composition of the parliament will include 705 deputies.

However, in April 2019, the EU and the United Kingdom agreed to postpone Brexit until October 31, 2019, and, in accordance with EU legislation, the United Kingdom must hold elections to the European Parliament.

After the UK's withdrawal from the EU, the number of seats in the European Parliament will be reduced from 751 to 705 � some of the seats will be redistributed among other member states, while the rest of the mandates will be annulled.