Slovenia

The lower house of the bicameral parliament is directly elected at least every 4 years in a two-tier, open-list proportional representation system. The National Assembly has 90 members, 2 of them are the Hungarian and Italian minority representatives. The other 88 members are elected in 8 constituencies, each of which contain 11 seats (and have approximately equal population).

The national legal electoral threshold is 4%.

The distribution of seats in the constituencies is done according to the Droop quota, and the unallocated seats are distributed at the national level using the D'Hondt method according to the number of seats the parties are entitled to at the national level. The seats allocated to the parties at the national level are redistributed to the constituencies. The two minority seats are elected by an single-choice, first-preference plurality (FPP) method, but previously the Borda count was used with ranked ballots (optional preferential voting). 

Parties may submit joint lists. List may have no fewer than 35% of candidates of either gender. A list may include as many candidates as there are seats, and a candidate may only appear on one list. 

The minimum age for both active suffrage (the right to vote) and passive (standing for election) is 18 years. Voting is not compulsory, voting in person at diplomatic missions abroad is possible, but postal voting, online voting, and proxy voting are not. A special feature of the Slovenian electoral system is the plural suffrage. This means that some voters explicitly have more votes than others, namely the Hungarian and Italian minority voters, who can vote for both minority representatives and party lists.

The president (head of state) is directly elected for a 5-year term in a two-round system and may be re-elected once, so the same person can be president for a maximum of 2 terms in total, i.e. 10 years (the two terms do not have to be consecutive). The first round is held via a single-choice vote and the two candidates with the most votes advance to the second round if no one receives a majority (more than half of the valid votes, 50%+) in the first round.

MEPs from Slovenia are elected every 5 years (at the same time as in the other EU member states). The entire country forms one constituency, in which 9 MEPs were elected in 2024. Due to "degressive proportionality", Slovenian voters have significantly more representatives per capita than the EU average.

The main principle in the election of the Parliament (within the countries) is proportionality: by default, only a proportional system can be used, but beyond this, the member states decide for themselves what type. Slovenia, like most member states, uses an open-list proportional system. This means that voters can vote not only for a party list, but also for a candidate on the list, thus allowing them the chance to collectively change the predetermined order of the candidates. The allocation of seats between parties is done using the the D'Hondt (Jefferson) method. There is no legal electoral threshold, but in practice (due to the 9 seats) a minimum of about 7.5% is required to obtain a seat.

The minimum age for both active suffrage (the right to vote) and passive suffrage (standing for election) is 18 years. Voting not compulsory, voting at embassies is possible (from other EU member states and third countries), however, postal voting, online voting or proxy voting are not possible.

This is the description of the electoral system of Slovenia as of 08.06.2026 on Electoral Knowledgebase. Sources and further information on this topic:

• Electoral Law (National Assembly)

• https://www.dvk-rs.si/en/election-education/

• 2024 European Parliament elections: National rules (European Parliament)

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