Next Parliamentary Elections to be held in October 2018

At its sitting on Friday 28 October, the cabinet of the Luxembourg Government has adopted a bill amending the amended electoral law of 18 February 2003 which will result in fixing the date of the next parliamentary elections in October 2018.

Under current legislation, the mandate of elected members of parliament currently in office is expected to be completed in June 2019, i.e. five years and eight months after taking office. However, given that the Constitution limits the tenure of members to five years, the government proposes that the forthcoming parliamentary elections are held in October 2018, i.e. after an exact period of five years from the date of entry into the duties of members. The project ignores the principle of holding right of legislative elections on the first Sunday in June and has dedicated a new rule that elections are held on the day which bears the same number as the day of the last elections. If this day is not a Sunday, elections are advanced to the next Sunday.

The next elections will take place during the month of October in 2018. As per this principle, legislative elections coincide every 30 years with municipal elections, including in 2023, and to avoid that these elections fall in the same month of the same year, the bill proposes to remedy this exceptional situation by advancing in this case the local elections to June.

The bill also provides for the possibility of fixing the election date by the Grand Ducal Regulation at one of the Sundays before or after the specific day mentiomned to preserve the Executive’s power to postpone the elections in case they, for example, should fall into a period of school holidays or on a holiday.

The amendments made by this bill will also ensure the separation in time of national and European elections.