Secret ballot in the context of "Luis Guillermo Solís"

Albania is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic, in which the president of Albania is the head of state and the prime minister of Albania is the head of government in a multi-party system. The executive power is exercised by the Government and the prime minister with its Cabinet. Legislative power is vested in the Parliament of Albania. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The political system of Albania is laid out in the 1998 constitution. The Parliament adopted the current constitution on 28 November 1998. Historically Albania has had many constitutions. Initially constituted as a monarchy in 1913, Albania became briefly a republic in 1925, and then a authoritarian monarchy in 1928. In 1939 Albania was invaded by Fascist Italian forces, imposing a puppet state, and later occupied by Nazi German forces. Following the partisan liberation from the Nazis in 1944 a provisional government was formed, which by 1946 had transformed into a communist one-party state. In March 1991 democracy was restored with multi-party elections.

The president represents the unity of the Albanian people in the country and abroad as the head of state and is also the commander-in-chief of the military. The president is nominated through a secret vote and without debate by the Parliament of Albania by a majority of three-fifths of all its members and is in every case elected for five years. The president maintains regular and coordinated operation and stability of the national government system, safeguards the independence and territorial integrity of Albania and appoints prime ministers on the basis of the balance of power in the Parliament. The prime minister is appointed by the president after each parliamentary election and must have the confidence of the Parliament to stay in office. The prime minister is elected on the basis of universal suffrage, through a secret ballot, for a four-year term. The constitution sets no limit as to office terms of the prime minister. The prime minister is de facto the most powerful and influential person in Albanian politics. However, in the absence of the prime minister, the deputy prime minister takes over his functions, such as chairing the cabinet and the council of ministers of Albania.

The Croatian Parliament (Croatian: Hrvatski sabor) or the Sabor is the unicameral legislature of Croatia. Under the terms of the Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the people and is vested with legislative power. The Sabor is composed of 151 members elected to a four-year term on the basis of direct, universal and equal suffrage by secret ballot. Seats are allocated according to the Croatian Parliament electoral districts: 140 members of the parliament are elected in multi-seat constituencies. An additional three seats are reserved for the diaspora and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while national minorities have eight places reserved in parliament. The Sabor is presided over by a Speaker, who is assisted by at least one deputy speaker (usually four or five deputies).

The Sabor's powers are defined by the Constitution and they include: defining economic, legal and political relations in Croatia, preservation and use of its heritage and entering into alliances. The Sabor has the right to deploy the Croatian Armed Forces abroad, and it may restrict some constitutional rights and liberties in wartime or in cases of imminent war or following natural disasters. The Sabor amends the borders of Croatia or the Constitution, enacts legislation, passes the state budget, declares war and decides on cessation of hostilities, adopts parliamentary resolutions and bylaws, adopts long-term national security and defence strategies, implements civil supervision of the armed forces and security services, calls referendums, performs elections and appointments conforming to the constitution and applicable legislation, supervises operations of the Government and other civil services responsible to the parliament, grants amnesty for criminal offences and performs other duties defined by the constitution.

The Parliament of Albania (Albanian: Kuvendi i Shqipërisë) or Kuvendi is the unicameral representative body of the citizens of the Republic of Albania; it is Albania's legislature. The Parliament is composed of no less than 140 members elected to a four-year term on the basis of direct, universal, periodic and equal suffrage by secret ballot. The Parliament is presided over by the Speaker, who is assisted by at least one deputy speaker. The electoral system is based on party-list proportional representation. There are 12 multi-seat constituencies, corresponding to the country's counties.

The Parliament's powers are defined by the Constitution of Albania. Among its responsibilities, it has the power to amend the borders of Albania or the Constitution, pass all laws, approve the cabinet, supervise the work of the government, declare war, decide on cessation of hostilities, adopt the state's budgets and approve the state's accounts. Other duties include calling referendums, performing elections and appointments conforming to the Constitution and applicable legislation, supervising operations of the government and other civil services responding to Parliament, granting amnesty for criminal offences and performing other duties defined by the Constitution. The Parliament also elects the President of the Republic. When the Parliament is elected, the first session shall be held no later than 20 days after the completion of elections with the President as the speaker. However, all laws passed by the Parliament are published on Fletorja Zyrtare, which is the official journal of the Government of Albania.

Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist, social philosopher and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the economic philosophy known as Georgism, the belief that people should own the value they produce themselves, but that the economic value of land (including natural resources) should belong equally to all members of society. George famously argued that a single tax on land values would create a more productive and just society.

His most famous work, Progress and Poverty (1879), sold millions of copies worldwide. The treatise investigates the paradox of increasing inequality and poverty amid economic and technological progress, the business cycle with its cyclic nature of industrialized economies, and the use of rent capture such as land value taxation and other anti-monopoly reforms as a remedy for these and other social problems. Other works by George defended free trade, the secret ballot, free (at marginal cost) public utilities/transportation provided by the capture of their resulting land rent uplift, Pigouvian taxation, and public ownership of other natural monopolies.

A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16th century.

Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but governmental elections use printed ballots to protect the secrecy of the votes. The voter casts their ballot in a box at a polling station.

The president of Serbia (Serbian: Председник Србије, romanized: Predsednik Srbije), officially styled as President of the Republic (Serbian: Председник Републике, romanized: Predsednik Republike), is the head of state of Serbia, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, representing the country both at home and abroad. The president jointly exercises the executive power with the Government, headed by the Prime Minister.

The president is elected on the basis of universal suffrage, through a secret ballot, for a five-year term. If no candidate in the election secures more than 50% of all votes cast, a runoff election between the top two candidates from the first round is held. The Constitution sets a limit of a maximum of two terms in office.

The National Assembly (Serbian: Народна скупштина, Narodna skupština, pronounced [nǎːrodnaː skûpʃtina]) or Parliament (Serbian: Парламент, Parlament, pronounced [parlameːnt]), formally the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: Народна скупштина Републике Србије, romanized: Narodna skupština Republike Srbije), is the unicameral legislature of Serbia. The assembly is composed of 250 deputies who are proportionally elected to four-year terms on the basis of direct, universal, and equal suffrage by secret ballot. It is presided over by a President of the National Assembly (speaker), who is assisted by at least one vice-president (deputy speaker).

The National Assembly exercises supreme legislative power. It adopts and amends the Constitution, laws, elects Government, appoints state officials such as the Supreme Public Prosecutor, Ombudsman, Governor of the National Bank of Serbia, President of the State Audit Institution. All decisions are made by majority vote of deputies at the session at which a majority of deputies are present, except for amending the Constitution, when a two-thirds majority is needed.