Hof HaCarmel Regional Council

Hof HaCarmel Regional Council (Hebrew: מועצה אזורית חוף הכרמל‎, Mo'atza Azorit Hof HaCarmel, lit. Carmel Coast Regional Council) is a regional council located in the northern Israeli coastal plain. The council serves a large area, stretching from Tirat HaCarmel in the north to Caesarea in the south. Its offices are located in Ein Carmel to the south of Haifa. The mayor is Carmel Sela, elected in 2004.

Location

Straddling the coast of the Mediterranean Sea to the west, the boundaries of the municipal area are:

In the centre of the council area are the enclave towns of Binyamina, Zikhron Ya'akov, Fureidis and Jisr az-Zarqa.

Communities

Hof HaCarmel Regional Council contains many different types of settlements, including eight kibbutzim, ten moshavim and two communal settlements. Most of the land in the Hof HaCarmel region is owned and leased by the Israel Land Administration.

Regional Council

Regional Council may refer to:

Regional council may refer to:

Regional Council (Cameroon)

Regional councils are, nominally, the governing bodies of the regions of Cameroon. As defined by the Constitution of Cameroon, the councils have control of cultural, economic, educational, health-related, social, and sport-related issues in the regions. The members of each council are delegates indirectly elected by the populace and traditional rulers selected by their peers. Each council is headed by a president, who is elected by the members from among their own ranks. Members serve five-year terms.

Each council is advised by members of parliament from the area and by an administrator appointed by the president of Cameroon. This individual acts at the president's personal representative and wields considerable power. The president of Cameroon reserves the right to disband any regional council he so chooses.

The regional councils were created by Cameroon's constitution of 1996 in response to agitation for a return to a federal system of government or increased decentralisation. However, the councils have yet to be established in reality, and the regions established by the constitution are still known as provinces and are headed by presidentially appointed governors.

Regional council (France)

A regional council (French: conseil régional) is the elected assembly of a region of France.

History

Regional councils were created by law on 5 July 1972. Originally they were simply consultative bodies consisting of the region's parliamentary representatives plus an equal number of members nominated by the departments and municipalities.

The decentralisation programme of 1982-1983 provided for direct election which began in 1986 and increased the powers of the councils.

Operation

The Assemblies elect their own Presidents who preside over the meetings and head the Regional Executive.

Electoral system

Before 2004

Between 1986 and 2004, regional councils were elected by closed list proportional representation. The Front National was frequently left with the balance of power as a result and this led to a change in the electoral law.

Since 2004

Since 2004 three quarters of the seats continue to be elected by proportional representation with each list having an equal number of male and female candidates. The other quarter are given to the list that received the most votes. In order to gain these top up seats, a list must have gained an absolute majority of the votes in the first round. If this has not been achieved a second round is held with each party that gained at least ten percent of the votes competing. The party that wins a plurality in this round gains the bonus seats. It is common in this round for lower ranking parties to withdraw in favour of parties they have entered into an alliance with.