On August 19, 2025, Decree Law No. (23) Concerning the Elections of Local Authority Councils, was issued, identifying two electoral systems; proportional representation (open list) for municipal councils; and simple majority (individual candidacy) for village councils.

In accordance with this Decree Law, candidacy in the municipal councils occurs through open lists, where ballot papers have the name of the electoral list and all of its candidates, given that the number of list candidates must be equal to the number of seats allocated to the municipal council. Voters select one list and five (5) candidates or less from the same list they voted for, regardless of the number of municipal council seats.

Seats are allocated to lists that obtain 5% or more of valid votes (threshold), and are distributed according to “Sainte-Lague” method, which are divided among the candidates of the same list depending on the number of votes each candidate acquires, meanwhile taking into consideration women representation and the Islam-Christianity Quota.

Whereas, at village councils, nomination is done individually (Simple Majority), where names of candidates appear on the ballot paper according to the order of nomination. Voters select five (5) candidates or less, and seats are distributed to candidates according to number of votes in descending order, meanwhile taking into consideration women representation and Islam-Christianity Quota.

 To view further details of the Decree Law No. (23) of 2005, Concerning the Elections of Local Authority Councils, Click here