ELECTIONS IN THE AMERICAS A DATA HANDBOOK 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 historical and cross-national comparisons of elections and electoral systems world-wide. Elections in the Americas A Data Handbook VOLUME I North America, Central America, and the Caribbean Edited by DIETER NOHLEN 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox26dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan South Korea Poland Portugal Singapore Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York ß Dieter Nohlen 2005 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2005 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0-19-928357-5 Vol-I ISBN 0-19-928358-3 Vol-2 ISBN 0-19-925358-7 (2-Volume set) 13579108642 Typeset by the Editor Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd., King’s Lynn 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 This page intentionally left blank Notes on the Editor