On the 9th of April, Andorrans will vote to elect the next members of parliament and as an iberian country, i will try to cover this election as much as possible! This short article is essentially an introduction to the intricacies of Andorra’s singular political system.



Diarchy

Andorra has two heads of state that serve equally as co-princes. One is the French President and the other is the bishop of the catalan city of La Seu D’Urgell. This system was originated in 1095 when the diocese of Urgell who posessed the Andorran Valleys asked the Lord of Caboet for protection since they didn’t had a proper military force and a co-sovereignity treaty of signed. Almost 200 years later, a dispute emerged between the Bishop of Urgell and Count of Foix(who through innheritance and marriages was co-suzerain of Andorra). After mediation by the King of Aragon, a pareage was signed giving Andorra political form, delimiting it’s territory establishing formally the co-sovereignity of both Bishop of Urgell and the Count of Foix. Following a series of marriages over centuries the title ended up in the French King and is now held by the French President. The two heads of state have only cerimonial roles.



The co-princes of Andorra, Bishop Joan Enric Vives i Sicilia and Emmanuel Macron

Parliament

Andorra has one of the oldest parliaments in the world. It was first established in 1419 as consell de la terra.

Currently the parliament is composed by 28 general councillors and are elected by two methods:

–> Each of the seven parishes forms a constituency electing 2 members.

–> Fourteen members elected in a national list.

The local lists and national lists are independent of each other and the same person cannot appear in both lists.

A National list was only implemented in 1993. Before, 4 general councillors were elected exclusively from each constituency which was quite unbalanced since it didn’t took into account the fact that parishes varies widely in terms of population.





Casa de la Vall was for centuries the parliament of Andorra

Constitution

Andorra’s constitution was only approved in 1993. Before it, there was no clear definition of the roles of the co-princes or a clear separation of power between the judiciary, executive and legislative body. Legal system was essentially based on customary law and the nation’s most important constitutional document was the pareage signed in 1278.

Voters

Andorra has a population of 78k but only about 20k registered voters. Why? Immigrants, who form large part of the population can’t vote. Not even in Local elections.

It is very hard to acquire the nationality, even those who were born in Andorra are not automatically eligible to be Andorra citizens. To obtain nationality one needs to live in Andorra for 20 years(or 10 years in exceptional cases), prove it’s integration in society and renounce foreign citizenships since dual nationality is forbidden by the constitution.





Parties

Political parties were banned until 1993. Until then, all candidates ran as independents.

Since 1993, the Liberal Party governed 15 years, the social democratic party 2 years and Democrats for Andorra 8 years.

Currently, There are four parties represented in the Andorra General council:



Democrats for Andorra – Center Right 15 seats

Liberal Party of Andorra – Center Right 8 seats

Social Democratic Party of Andorra – Center-left 3 seats

Social Democratic and Progress – Center-left 2 seats