Mixed member proportional representation
Encyclopedia
Mixed-member proportional representation, also termed mixed-member proportional voting and commonly abbreviated to MMP, is a voting system
originally used to elect representatives
to the German Bundestag, and nowadays adopted by numerous legislature
s around the world. MMP is similar to other forms of proportional representation
(PR) in that the overall total of party members in the elected body is intended to mirror the overall proportion of votes received; it differs by including a set of members elected by geographic constituency who are deducted from the party totals so as to maintain overall proportionality. It is similar to the additional member system
used in the United Kingdom
, but the AMS system has no overhang seats (see below).
MMP is known as personalized proportional representation in Germany
, where it is used on the federal level and on most state levels, the Länder
. In Quebec
, where an MMP model was studied in 2007, it is called the compensatory mixed-member voting system (système mixte avec compensation or SMAC). New Zealand adopted MMP to elect its House of Representatives
in 1993, and the use of the system is currently under review by a referendum
on 26 November 2011.
, 20% of local MPs were elected from electorates (constituencies) which gave a different party a plurality of votes.
In Bavaria the second vote is not simply for the party but for one of candidates on the party's regional list: Bavaria uses seven regions for this purpose. A regional open-list method was also recommended for the United Kingdom by the Jenkins Commission
and for Canada by the Law Commission of Canada.
In Baden-Württemberg there are no lists; they use the "best near-winner" method in a four-region model, where the regional members are the local candidates of the under-represented party in that region who received the most votes in their local constituency without being elected in it.
In each constituency, the representative is chosen using a single winner method, typically first-past-the-post
(that is, the candidate with the most votes, by plurality, wins).
or a highest averages method
: either the D'Hondt method
or the Sainte-Laguë method
. Subtracted from each party's allocation is the number of constituency seats that party won, so that the additional seats are compensatory (top-up). If a party wins more FPTP seats than the proportional quota received by the party-list vote, these surplus seats become overhang seats to restore a full proportionality.
s can occur.
In Germany's Bundestag
and the New Zealand House of Representatives, all these constituency members keep their seats.
In most German states, the other parties receive extra seats ("balance seats") to create full proportionality. For example, the provincial parliament (Landtag) of North Rhine Westphalia has, instead of the usual 50% compensatory seats, only 29% unless more are needed to balance overhangs. If a party wins more local seats than its proportion of the total vote justifies, the size of the Landtag increases so that the total outcome is fully proportional to the votes, with other parties receiving additional list seats to achieve that.
in New Zealand.
of Canada
proposed a system of MMP, with only 33% of MPs elected from regional open lists, for the Canadian House of Commons
but Parliament’s consideration of the Report in 2004-5 was stopped after the 2006 election.
A proposal to adopt MMP with closed province-wide lists for elections to the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island
was defeated in a plebiscite there on November 28, 2005.
In 2007 the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform
in Ontario
, Canada
, also recommended the use of MMP in future elections to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
, with a ballot similar to New Zealand's, and with the closed province-wide lists used in New Zealand but with only 30% compensatory members. A binding referendum
on the proposal, held in conjunction with the provincial election on 10 October 2007, saw it defeated.
For further details on the recent proposals in Ontario, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island, see Andre Barnes and James R. Robertson, Electoral Reform Initiatives in Canadian Provinces, Library of Parliament, revised 2009-08-18.
for a minor party that is predicted to poll close to or slightly below the threshold is relatively common. Some voters may be afraid the minor party will poll below the threshold, and that that would weaken the larger political camp that the minor party belongs to. For example the German moderate-right Free Democratic Party
(FDP) has often received votes from voters who preferred the larger Christian Democratic Union
(CDU) party, because they feared that if the FDP received less than 5% of the votes, the CDU would have no parliamentary allies and would be unable to form a government on its own. The FDP and other smaller parties campaigned to lower the threshold to the 4% used in Sweden
, Norway
and Austria
. This campaign might have succeeded but for the fear of resurgence of neo-Nazi parties. This tactical voting also ensures that votes are not wasted, but at the cost of giving the FDP more seats than CDU voters would ideally have preferred.
Similarly, in New Zealand, some voters who preferred a large party have voted for the minor party's local candidate to ensure it qualifies for seats (e.g. Epsom in 2008). In this case the tactic maintained proportionality by bypassing the 5% threshold.
In terms of tactical voting
, the vote for the constituency representative is normally much less important than the party vote in determining the overall result of an election; but in some cases a party may be so certain of winning seats in the constituency elections that it expects no extra seats in the proportional top-up. Some voters may therefore seek to achieve double representation by voting tactically for another party in the regional vote, as a vote for their preferred party in the regional vote would be wasted. However this runs the risk of unintended consequence
s. Also, this tactic does not work in those German states which add "balance seats"; since those states maintain full proportionality even when a party wins too many constituency seats. This tactic is not prevalent in good MMP models with enough extra seats: in Germany and the German states, generally 50% of the seats are "list seats", in Scotland 43%, in New Zealand 42.5%. Where there is a ratio of less than 30%, the model may be considered "MMP-lite". In Albania where they were only 28.6% of the total, this was so low that the two main parties expected no extra seats, and both started voting for allied minor parties with their party votes. This became so severe that it totally distorted the working of the model. Rather than increase the number of "list seats" or allow additional "overhang" seats, Albania recently decided to change to a pure-list system.
. They can co-ordinate their campaign and work together within the legislature, while remaining legally separate entities. This can also give other advantages in areas such as party funding.
For instance in the Italian general election, 2001
, one of the two main coalitions (the House of Freedoms
, which opposed the MMP system), linked many of their constituency candidates to a decoy list (liste civetta) in the proportional parts, under the name Abolizione Scorporo. As a defensive move, the other coalition, Olive Tree
, felt obliged to do the same, under the name Paese Nuovo. The constituency seats won by each coalition would not reduce the number of proportional seats they received. Between them, the two decoy lists won 360 of the 475 constituency seats, more than half of the total of 630 seats available, despite winning a combined total of less than 0.2% of the national proportional part of the vote. In the case of Forza Italia
(part of the House of Freedoms), the tactic was so successful that it did not have enough candidates in the proportional part to receive as many seats as it in fact won, missing out on 12 seats.
Decoy lists are not used in Germany, the UK, New Zealand, or most other places using MMP, where most voters vote for candidates from parties with long-standing names. In the run up to the 2007 Scottish election, the Labour party had considered not fielding list candidates in the Glasgow
, West of Scotland
, and Central Scotland
regions, as their constituency strength in the previous two elections had resulted in no list MSPs; instead they proposed to support a list composed of Co-Operative Party
candidates; previously the Co-Operative party had chosen not to field candidates of its own but merely to endorse particular Labour candidates. However the Scottish Electoral Commission ruled that as membership of the Co-Op party is dependent on membership of the Labour party they could not be considered distinct legal entites. In contrast, in the 2007 Welsh Assembly Election
, Forward Wales had its candidates (including sitting leader John Marek) stand as independents, to attempt to gain list seats they would not be entitled to if Forward Wales candidates were elected to constituencies in the given region. However the ruse failed: Marek lost his seat in Wrexham
and Forward Wales failed to qualify for any top-up seats.
Voting system
A voting system or electoral system is a method by which voters make a choice between options, often in an election or on a policy referendum....
originally used to elect representatives
Legislator
A legislator is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are usually politicians and are often elected by the people...
to the German Bundestag, and nowadays adopted by numerous legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
s around the world. MMP is similar to other forms of proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
(PR) in that the overall total of party members in the elected body is intended to mirror the overall proportion of votes received; it differs by including a set of members elected by geographic constituency who are deducted from the party totals so as to maintain overall proportionality. It is similar to the additional member system
Additional Member System
The Additional Member System is the term used in the United Kingdom for the mixed member proportional representation voting system used in Scotland, Wales and the London Assembly....
used in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, but the AMS system has no overhang seats (see below).
MMP is known as personalized proportional representation in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, where it is used on the federal level and on most state levels, the Länder
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
. In Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, where an MMP model was studied in 2007, it is called the compensatory mixed-member voting system (système mixte avec compensation or SMAC). New Zealand adopted MMP to elect its House of Representatives
New Zealand House of Representatives
The New Zealand House of Representatives is the sole chamber of the legislature of New Zealand. The House and the Queen of New Zealand form the New Zealand Parliament....
in 1993, and the use of the system is currently under review by a referendum
New Zealand voting method referendum, 2011
The New Zealand voting system referendum, 2011, was a referendum on whether to keep the existing mixed member proportional voting system, or to change to another voting system, for electing Members of Parliament to New Zealand's House of Representatives...
on 26 November 2011.
Procedures
In most models the voter casts two votes: one for a constituency representative and one for a party. If a candidate is on the party list, but wins a constituency seat, they do not receive two seats; they are instead crossed off the party list and replaced with the next candidate down. In the original variant used at first in Germany, still used by two States of Germany until 2010, both votes were combined into one, so that voting for a representative automatically means also voting for the representative's party. Most of Germany changed to the two-vote variant to make local MPs more personally accountable; the state of NorthRhine-Westphalia finally made the change in 2010. Voters can vote for the local person they prefer for local MP without regard for party affiliation, since the partisan make-up of the legislature is determined only by the party vote. In the 2005 New Zealand electionNew Zealand general election, 2005
The 2005 New Zealand general election held on 17 September 2005 determined the composition of the 48th New Zealand Parliament. No party won a majority in the unicameral House of Representatives, but the Labour Party of Prime Minister Helen Clark secured two more seats than nearest rival, the...
, 20% of local MPs were elected from electorates (constituencies) which gave a different party a plurality of votes.
In Bavaria the second vote is not simply for the party but for one of candidates on the party's regional list: Bavaria uses seven regions for this purpose. A regional open-list method was also recommended for the United Kingdom by the Jenkins Commission
Jenkins Commission (UK)
The Independent Commission on the Voting System, popularly known as the Jenkins Commission after its chairman Roy Jenkins, was a commission into possible reform of the United Kingdom electoral system.-The commission:...
and for Canada by the Law Commission of Canada.
In Baden-Württemberg there are no lists; they use the "best near-winner" method in a four-region model, where the regional members are the local candidates of the under-represented party in that region who received the most votes in their local constituency without being elected in it.
In each constituency, the representative is chosen using a single winner method, typically first-past-the-post
First-past-the-post
First-past-the-post voting refers to an election won by the candidate with the most votes. The winning potato candidate does not necessarily receive an absolute majority of all votes cast.-Overview:...
(that is, the candidate with the most votes, by plurality, wins).
Calculation methods
At the regional or national level (i.e. above the constituency level) several different calculation methods have been used, but the basic characteristic of the MMP is that the total number of seats in the assembly, including the single-member seats and not only the party-list ones, are allocated to parties proportionally to the number of votes the party received in the party portion of the ballot. This can be done by the largest remainder methodLargest remainder method
The largest remainder method is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems...
or a highest averages method
Highest averages method
The highest averages method is the name for a variety of ways to allocate seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems....
: either the D'Hondt method
D'Hondt method
The d'Hondt method is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. The method described is named after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt who described it in 1878...
or the Sainte-Laguë method
Sainte-Laguë method
The Sainte-Laguë method is one way of allocating seats approximately proportional to the number of votes of a party to a party list used in many voting systems. It is named after the French mathematician André Sainte-Laguë. The Sainte-Laguë method is quite similar to the D'Hondt method, but uses...
. Subtracted from each party's allocation is the number of constituency seats that party won, so that the additional seats are compensatory (top-up). If a party wins more FPTP seats than the proportional quota received by the party-list vote, these surplus seats become overhang seats to restore a full proportionality.
Overhang seats
When a party wins more constituency seats than it would be entitled to from its proportion of (party list) votes, overhang seatOverhang seat
Overhang seats can arise in elections under the traditional mixed member proportional system, when a party is entitled to fewer seats as a result of party votes than it has won constituencies.-How overhang seats arise:...
s can occur.
In Germany's Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
and the New Zealand House of Representatives, all these constituency members keep their seats.
In most German states, the other parties receive extra seats ("balance seats") to create full proportionality. For example, the provincial parliament (Landtag) of North Rhine Westphalia has, instead of the usual 50% compensatory seats, only 29% unless more are needed to balance overhangs. If a party wins more local seats than its proportion of the total vote justifies, the size of the Landtag increases so that the total outcome is fully proportional to the votes, with other parties receiving additional list seats to achieve that.
Threshold
As in numerous proportional systems, in order to be eligible for list seats in many MMP models, a party must earn at least a certain percentage of the total party vote, or no candidates will be elected from the party list. Candidates having won a constituency will still have won their seat. In Germany and New Zealand the threshold is 5%, in Bolivia 3%. A party can also be eligible for list seats if it wins at least three constituency seats in Germany, or at least one in New Zealand. Having a member with a 'safe' constituency seat is therefore a tremendous asset to a minor partyMinor party
Minor party is a political party that play a smaller role than a major party in a country's politics and elections. The difference between minor and major parties can be so big that the membership total, donations, and the candidates that they are able to produce or attract are very distinct...
in New Zealand.
Current use
MMP is currently in use in:- GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
- BundestagBundestagThe Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
, the federalFederationA federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
parliament (see Electoral system of Germany) - all state parliaments except Saarland, Bremen and Hamburg, but it is being introduced in Hamburg, see Hamburg Voting System.
- Bundestag
- New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
- House of RepresentativesNew Zealand House of RepresentativesThe New Zealand House of Representatives is the sole chamber of the legislature of New Zealand. The House and the Queen of New Zealand form the New Zealand Parliament....
, unicameral (see Electoral system of New ZealandElectoral system of New ZealandIn 1994 New Zealand officially adopted mixed member proportional representation as its electoral system for the House of Representatives after many years of first-past-the-post voting. The first MMP election was held in 1996....
)
- House of Representatives
- United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
- The Scottish ParliamentScottish ParliamentThe Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
, the National Assembly for WalesNational Assembly for WalesThe National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales. The Assembly comprises 60 members, who are known as Assembly Members, or AMs...
, and the London AssemblyLondon AssemblyThe London Assembly is an elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds majority, to amend the mayor's annual budget. The assembly was established in 2000 and is headquartered at City Hall on the south...
.
- The Scottish Parliament
- BoliviaBoliviaBolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
implemented MMP in elections for its lower house in 1994. - VenezuelaVenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
adopted MMP in 1990. - LesothoLesothoLesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...
adopted MMP in 2002.
Proposals for use
In March 2004 the Law CommissionLaw Commission
A Law Commission or Law Reform Commission is an independent body set up by a government to conduct law reform; that is, to consider the state of laws in a jurisdiction and make recommendations or proposals for legal changes or restructuring...
of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
proposed a system of MMP, with only 33% of MPs elected from regional open lists, for the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
but Parliament’s consideration of the Report in 2004-5 was stopped after the 2006 election.
A proposal to adopt MMP with closed province-wide lists for elections to the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island
Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island
The Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island, along with the Lieutenant-Governor, forms the parliament of the province. The General Assembly meets at Province House, which is located at the intersection of Richmond and Great George Streets in Charlottetown....
was defeated in a plebiscite there on November 28, 2005.
In 2007 the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform
Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform (Ontario)
The Government of the Canadian province of Ontario established a Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform in March 2006. Modelled on the British Columbia equivalent, it reviewed the first past the post electoral system currently in use to elect members of the Ontario Legislature, with the authority...
in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, also recommended the use of MMP in future elections to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...
, with a ballot similar to New Zealand's, and with the closed province-wide lists used in New Zealand but with only 30% compensatory members. A binding referendum
Ontario electoral reform referendum, 2007
An Ontario electoral reform referendum was held on October 10, 2007, in an attempt to establish a mixed member proportional representation system for elections to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario...
on the proposal, held in conjunction with the provincial election on 10 October 2007, saw it defeated.
For further details on the recent proposals in Ontario, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island, see Andre Barnes and James R. Robertson, Electoral Reform Initiatives in Canadian Provinces, Library of Parliament, revised 2009-08-18.
Potential for tactical voting
In systems with a threshold, tactical votingTactical voting
In voting systems, tactical voting occurs, in elections with more than two viable candidates, when a voter supports a candidate other than his or her sincere preference in order to prevent an undesirable outcome.It has been shown by the Gibbard-Satterthwaite theorem that any voting method which is...
for a minor party that is predicted to poll close to or slightly below the threshold is relatively common. Some voters may be afraid the minor party will poll below the threshold, and that that would weaken the larger political camp that the minor party belongs to. For example the German moderate-right Free Democratic Party
Free Democratic Party (Germany)
The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...
(FDP) has often received votes from voters who preferred the larger Christian Democratic Union
Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
(CDU) party, because they feared that if the FDP received less than 5% of the votes, the CDU would have no parliamentary allies and would be unable to form a government on its own. The FDP and other smaller parties campaigned to lower the threshold to the 4% used in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. This campaign might have succeeded but for the fear of resurgence of neo-Nazi parties. This tactical voting also ensures that votes are not wasted, but at the cost of giving the FDP more seats than CDU voters would ideally have preferred.
Similarly, in New Zealand, some voters who preferred a large party have voted for the minor party's local candidate to ensure it qualifies for seats (e.g. Epsom in 2008). In this case the tactic maintained proportionality by bypassing the 5% threshold.
In terms of tactical voting
Tactical voting
In voting systems, tactical voting occurs, in elections with more than two viable candidates, when a voter supports a candidate other than his or her sincere preference in order to prevent an undesirable outcome.It has been shown by the Gibbard-Satterthwaite theorem that any voting method which is...
, the vote for the constituency representative is normally much less important than the party vote in determining the overall result of an election; but in some cases a party may be so certain of winning seats in the constituency elections that it expects no extra seats in the proportional top-up. Some voters may therefore seek to achieve double representation by voting tactically for another party in the regional vote, as a vote for their preferred party in the regional vote would be wasted. However this runs the risk of unintended consequence
Unintended consequence
In the social sciences, unintended consequences are outcomes that are not the outcomes intended by a purposeful action. The concept has long existed but was named and popularised in the 20th century by American sociologist Robert K. Merton...
s. Also, this tactic does not work in those German states which add "balance seats"; since those states maintain full proportionality even when a party wins too many constituency seats. This tactic is not prevalent in good MMP models with enough extra seats: in Germany and the German states, generally 50% of the seats are "list seats", in Scotland 43%, in New Zealand 42.5%. Where there is a ratio of less than 30%, the model may be considered "MMP-lite". In Albania where they were only 28.6% of the total, this was so low that the two main parties expected no extra seats, and both started voting for allied minor parties with their party votes. This became so severe that it totally distorted the working of the model. Rather than increase the number of "list seats" or allow additional "overhang" seats, Albania recently decided to change to a pure-list system.
Decoy lists
Political parties can also abuse the system by splitting their party into two, if this is allowed by electoral law. One subdivision of the party contests the constituency seats, the other contests the list seats. This will produce an overhangOverhang seat
Overhang seats can arise in elections under the traditional mixed member proportional system, when a party is entitled to fewer seats as a result of party votes than it has won constituencies.-How overhang seats arise:...
. They can co-ordinate their campaign and work together within the legislature, while remaining legally separate entities. This can also give other advantages in areas such as party funding.
For instance in the Italian general election, 2001
Italian general election, 2001
A national general election was held in Italy on May 13, 2001 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The 14th Parliament of the Italian republic was chosen....
, one of the two main coalitions (the House of Freedoms
House of Freedoms
The House of Freedoms , was a major Italian centre-right political and electoral alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi. It was initially composed of several political parties:*Forza Italia *National Alliance...
, which opposed the MMP system), linked many of their constituency candidates to a decoy list (liste civetta) in the proportional parts, under the name Abolizione Scorporo. As a defensive move, the other coalition, Olive Tree
Olive Tree
The Olive Tree was a denomination used for several successive centre-left Italian political coalitions from 1995 to 2007.The historical leader and ideologue of these coalitions was Romano Prodi, Professor of Economics and former leftist Christian Democrat, who invented the name and the symbol of...
, felt obliged to do the same, under the name Paese Nuovo. The constituency seats won by each coalition would not reduce the number of proportional seats they received. Between them, the two decoy lists won 360 of the 475 constituency seats, more than half of the total of 630 seats available, despite winning a combined total of less than 0.2% of the national proportional part of the vote. In the case of Forza Italia
Forza Italia
Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....
(part of the House of Freedoms), the tactic was so successful that it did not have enough candidates in the proportional part to receive as many seats as it in fact won, missing out on 12 seats.
Decoy lists are not used in Germany, the UK, New Zealand, or most other places using MMP, where most voters vote for candidates from parties with long-standing names. In the run up to the 2007 Scottish election, the Labour party had considered not fielding list candidates in the Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, West of Scotland
West of Scotland
West of Scotland may refer to:*West of Scotland, an electoral region of the Scottish Parliament*Informally, an area comprising Argyll, Ayrshire, Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire, and Renfrewshire*West of Scotland Football Club*West of Scotland Cricket Club...
, and Central Scotland
Central Scotland
Central Scotland may refer to:* Central Belt, the area of highest population density in Scotland, also known as the "Midlands" or "Scottish Midlands"* Central Lowlands, a geologically-defined area of relatively low-lying land in southern Scotland...
regions, as their constituency strength in the previous two elections had resulted in no list MSPs; instead they proposed to support a list composed of Co-Operative Party
Co-operative Party
The Co-operative Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom committed to supporting and representing co-operative principles. The party does not put up separate candidates for any UK election itself. Instead, Co-operative candidates stand jointly with the Labour Party as "Labour...
candidates; previously the Co-Operative party had chosen not to field candidates of its own but merely to endorse particular Labour candidates. However the Scottish Electoral Commission ruled that as membership of the Co-Op party is dependent on membership of the Labour party they could not be considered distinct legal entites. In contrast, in the 2007 Welsh Assembly Election
National Assembly for Wales election, 2007
The 2007 National Assembly election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the National Assembly for Wales. It was the third general election. On the same day local elections in England and Scotland, and the Scottish Parliament election took place...
, Forward Wales had its candidates (including sitting leader John Marek) stand as independents, to attempt to gain list seats they would not be entitled to if Forward Wales candidates were elected to constituencies in the given region. However the ruse failed: Marek lost his seat in Wrexham
Wrexham (National Assembly for Wales constituency)
Wrexham is a constituency of the National Assembly for Wales. It elects one Assembly Member by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it is one of nine constituencies in the North Wales electoral region, which elects four additional members, in addition to nine constituency...
and Forward Wales failed to qualify for any top-up seats.
See also
- Leveling seatLeveling seatLeveling seats are a mechanism employed in Norwegian elections to the national legislature, the Storting, and in Swedish elections to national and regional assemblies, to ensure proportional representation both by county and political party...
- List of democracy and elections-related topics
- Voting systemVoting systemA voting system or electoral system is a method by which voters make a choice between options, often in an election or on a policy referendum....
- Proportional representationProportional representationProportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
- Open listOpen listOpen list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected...
- Closed listClosed listClosed list describes the variant of party-list proportional representation where voters can only vote for political parties as a whole and thus have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected...
Further reading
- Malone, R. 2008. Rebalancing the Constitution: The Challenge of Government Law-Making under MMP. Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington: Wellington, New Zealand.
- Mudambi, R. and Navarra, P. 2004. Electoral Strategies in Mixed Systems of Representation. European Journal of Political Economy, Vol.20, No.1, pp. 227–253.
- Shugart, S. Matthew and Martin P. Wattenberg, (2000a), "Mixed-Member Electoral Systems: A Definition and Typology", in Shugart, S. Matthew and Martin P. Wattenberg (2000). Mixed-Member Electoral Systems: The Best of Both Worlds?" Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 9-24.
- Massicotte Louis and Andre Blais, (1999), "Mixed Electoral Systems: A Conceptual and Empirical Survey", Electoral Studies, Vol. 18, 341-366.
External links
- ACE Project: "Germany: The original MMP system"
- A Handbook of Electoral System Design from International IDEA
- Electoral Design Reference Materials from the ACE Project
- http://nesstar.esds.ac.uk/webview/index.jsp?rightside=mode%3Ddocumentation%26submode%3Dabstract%26study%3Dhttp%3A//nesstar.esds.ac.uk%3A80/obj/fStudy/5076&treeview=mode%3Dtreeview%26open%3Dhttp%3A//nesstar.esds.ac.uk%3A80/obj/fCatalog/ESDS%26open%3Dhttp%3A//nesstar.esds.ac.uk%3A80/obj/fCatalog/Catalog38%20%26open%3Dhttp%3A//nesstar.esds.ac.uk%3A80/obj/fStudy/5076%26open%3Dhttp%3A//nesstar.esds.ac.uk%3A80/obj/fCatalog/Catalog13%26open%3Dhttp%3A//nesstar.esds.ac.uk%3A80/obj/fCatalog/Catalog38%26open%3Dhttp%3A//nesstar.esds.ac.uk%3A80/obj/fStudy/5076Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, 2003.]
- Handbook of Electoral System Choice