single transferable vote (STV). Candidates are numbered in order of preference by the voter, and any votes surplus to the minimum required for a candidate to win are transferred to second preferences, as are second-preference votes from the successive candidates at the bottom of the poll until the required number of elected candidates is achieved. This is in use in the Republic of Ireland and for European Parliament elections in Northern Ireland. It has also been used since June 1998 for elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

alternative vote (AV). Not strictly a form of proportional representation, since it cannot guarantee a close relationship between votes and seats, the AV is a system which is simple and can make the voting system fairer. It is based on single-member constituencies in which the elector receives two votes: a first vote, to be marked ‘1’, for the preferred candidate, and a second, to be marked ‘2’, for a second choice. If no one candidate collects more than 50% of the ‘first preference’ votes, the candidate with the fewest of first choice votes is eliminated and his or her ‘second preference’ votes are allocated among the remaining candidates. This process continues until one candidate emerges with at least 50%. The system is used in Australian House of Representatives elections. Termed the Supplementary Vote (SV), it has also been used since May 2000 to elect the Greater London mayor.

In Britain the growth in the vote for third parties, especially the Liberals, in the 1960s and 1970s, revived interest in a pressure for some form of proportional representation. Before assuming office in May 1997, the Labour Party established an independent commission to review and advise on possible future changes to the electoral system. It also promised in its manifesto to later hold a referendum to allow voters a choice between the two systems. The commission was set up in December and chaired by the Liberal Democrat peer, Lord Jenkins. It reported in October 1998 and proposed a version of AMS, using the Alternative Vote in the single-member constituencies, and with 15-20% of parliament's members being drawn from top-up seats, elected using an ‘open party list’ system of proportional representation.

In France in 1985 it was proposed to introduce a system under which, after ruling out parties with less than a 5% poll in each département, the votes for the rest would be divided by the number of seats to obtain an electoral quotient (for example, if the quotient were 15,000 votes, party A with 30,000 votes would win two seats, and party B with 12,000 would win none); unallocated seats would be distributed in a second round when each party's poll would be divided by the number of seats it had already won, plus one (that is, party A would now be credited with only 10,000 votes; party B, having won no seat so far, would be credited with its original 12,000, and so gain a seat). This proportional system was adopted for the 1986 National Assembly elections, but France has since reverted to a majoritarian system, in which candidates are required to gain a majority of votes either in a first ballot or a ‘run-off’ second ballot held a week later.

The party list system has been used in Angola, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon , and Vanuatu.

essays

Britain's Unwritten Constitution

Voting system