bicameral Parliament consists of a National Assembly or Drzavni Zbor (90 seats; 40 members are directly elected and 50 are elected on a proportional basis; note - the number of directly elected and proportionally elected seats varies with each election; the constitution mandates 1 seat each for Slovenia's Hungarian and Italian minorities; members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms) and the National Council or Drzavni Svet (40 seats; members indirectly elected by an electoral college to serve five-year terms; note - this is primarily an advisory body with limited legislative powers; it may propose laws, ask to review any National Assembly decision, and call national referenda) elections: National Assembly - last held 21 September 2008 (next to be held 8 October 2012) election results: percent of vote by party - SD 30.5%, SDS 29.3%, ZARES 9.4%, DeSUS 7.5%, SNS 5.5%, SLS+SMS 5.2%, LDS 5.2%, other 7.4%; seats by party - SD 29, SDS 28, ZARES 9, DeSUS 7, SNS 5, SLS+SMS 5, LDS 5, Hungarian minority 1, Italian minority 1
Judicial branch:
Supreme Court (judges are elected by the National Assembly on the recommendation of the Judicial Council); Constitutional Court (judges elected for nine-year terms by the National Assembly and nominated by the president)
Political parties and leaders:
Liberal Democracy of Slovenia or LDS [Katarina KRESAL]; New Slovenia
or NSi [Andrej BAJUK]; Slovenian Democratic Party or SDS [Janez
JANSA]; Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia or DeSUS [Karl
ERJAVEC]; Slovene National Party or SNS [Zmago JELINCIC]; Slovene
People's Party or SLS [Bojan SROT]; Slovene Youth Party or SMS
[Darko KRANJC]; Social Democrats or SD [Borut PAHOR] (formerly
ZLSD); ZARES [Gregor Golobic]
Political pressure groups and leaders:
Democratic Party of Slovenian Pensioners or DeSUS (protecting the rights of the older generation); Slovenian Roma Association [Jozek Horvat MUC] other: Catholic Church
International organization participation:
Australia Group, BIS, CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, EU, FAO, IADB,
IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (guest), NATO,
NSG, OAS (observer), OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, Schengen
Convention, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNTSO, UNWTO,
UPU, WCO, WEU (associate partner), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC
Diplomatic representation in the US: