Concept in Definition ABC

In relation to the voting processes that take place in a nation there are several equivalent names, such as elections, elections, popular consultation or electoral process. All of them share the same general idea: those people who have recognized the right to vote they can express their will through the ballot box.

Most elections take place in a democratic context

In some dictatorships, citizens are consulted to express their opinion on certain issues. However, in the context of a totalitarian regime, elections do not offer sufficient guarantees.

Democratic elections are associated with a series of requirements and conditions. Some of them are the following:

1) the electoral process is regulated by the law,

2) for the voting to be fair, it is necessary to guarantee individual freedoms,

3) the different political formations exercise control over the voting process,

4) there is an electoral board or body of supervision which acts as a regulatory entity in the event of any possible irregularity.

To the margin of these conditions, in free elections it is necessary that there be a legal recognition related to the freedom of expression and chambers of popular representation.

The origin of the term elections is found in the culture of Ancient Rome

This word comes from the Latin comitia, which literally means "to go together". From a historical point of view, elections were meetings or assemblies of the people in which citizens expressed their opinions on public affairs. This form of participation popular was not the only one, since there was also the Senate, but this institution he had an aristocratic character.

There were different types of popular assemblies, such as the Comitia Tributa or the Comitia Centuriata. In these meetings the people could express their will. The expression vox populi also comes from this historical context.

In popular assemblies, decisions with a legal value were not made. People who participated in them gave their opinion, applauded or shouted, but their views had no legal value. However, in Roman society it was considered that these assemblies had a political value, since in them it was possible to know what the concerns of the common people were.

In short, the assemblies were not a system of representation politics, but a set of citizens grouped into social categories.

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