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Electoral Systems
First Past the Post
Additional Member System
A Product of Historical
Development
First Past the Post (FPTP)
Representational Principles
• The Representation of Places
• The Representation of People
Conflict Between Representation of-
• Local Constituencies (Places)
• National Constituencies (Political Parties)
General Elections are not national but local
• They consist of 646 different elections
But where is the Post?
• There isn’t one !!
• The System is really ‘Furthest Down the Course’
…..when the voting stops
Inverness, Nairn, & Lochaber, 1992 General Election
Johnston Lib Dem 13,258 26.0 %
Stewart Labour 12,800 25.0 %
Ewing SNP 12,562 24.7 %
Scott Conservative 11,517 22.6 %
Martin Green 766 1.5 %
Who does FPTP favour?
• Butter more than margarine
• The parties whose support is geographically concentrated
• By and large the bigger parties
The General Election, 1983
Vote % Seats %
Seats
Conservatives 42.4 61.1 397
Labour 27.6 32.2 209
Lib/SDP 25.4 3.5 23
SNP/PC 1.5 0.6 4
All Seats 650
The General Election, 2005
Vote % Seats %
Seats
Labour 35.2 55.1 356
Conservative 32.4 30.7 198
LibDems 22.1 9.6 62
SNP/PC 2.5 1.4 9
All Seats 646
2005 General Election
• Labour 356*• Con. 198• Lib/Dem 62• SNP 6
• Plaid Cymru 3• Kidmster Hsp 1 • Respect 1
• Ind (Lab) 1
• Ulster U 1• Democratic U 9• SDLP 3• Sinn Fein 5
*Inc. Speaker
Usual Consequences of FPTP
• Single Party Government• General Elections decide who shall form
the government• Close connection between the
government and electors• Strong government, weak parliament• Unfair allocation of seats in the
parliament
Additional Member Systems (AMS)* or Mixed Member
• Consists of two elements:
– 1. First Past the Post
– 2. Proportional Representation
AMS has a number of variations
• In some cases the two elements are not linked
• The proportion of AM to FPTP seats vary
• The AM s may be distributed at a National or Sub-National level
• The elector may have one or two votes
AMS
Scottish
Style
Scottish Additional Member System
• Consists of two inter- connected elements:
– 1. First Past the Post
– 2. Proportional Representation
Why the Additional Member System? (AMS)
• Labour wanted All-Party Support
• AMS was Labour’s Preferred Alternative
• Liberals Prepared to accept AMS as a compromise
• Labour also felt it would make it more difficult for the Nationalists to get a majority of seats
Features of the Scheme
• 73 FPTP Seats (Westminster Seats pre-2005, but Orkney and Shetland divided)
• 8 ‘Regional’ Constituencies each returning 7 Additional Members
Voting
• Each elector has two votes
• One for the FPTP seat
• One for a ‘Regional’ party list
Nomination Strategies
• Disincentive for small parties to contest the constituency seats
• Thus: Few parties contest the constituencies
A plethora of parties context the lists
North East
Constituencies
In eight out of nine seats only the four main parties stood
In Gordon the four main parties stood + Scottish Enterprise Party and two Independents
Scottish senior citizens united party
Green
North East
Regional List
The Voter Does Not Have to Vote for the Same Party with both of
His/Her Votes
)
Patrick Harvie
Rosie KaneTommy Sheridan
‘Give us your second vote’
Allocation of Regional Additional Members
•The regional list votes across all the FPTP constituencies in a region are added up
•Each party’s 2nd votes are then divided by the number of FPTP seats already won +1 (D’Hondt Quota)
Allocation of AMs continued• After the division the First AM is allocated
to the party whose divided vote is highest
• The 2nd AM is allocated by dividing the 2nd Votes by seats already won, including the 1st Additional Member.
• The process continues until all seven AMs have been allocated
The Allocation of Regional List MSPs in the North East
(see handout)
The Ballot and Dislike of Small Parties
The Ballot
• Prior to 2007 two pieces of paper
• 1st for Constituency Vote
• 2nd for the Regional List
• 2007 One piece of paper
• 1st vote for the Regional List
• 2nd vote for the Constituency
Working of the system in 2007
Overall Result of the Scottish Parliamentary Election 2007
the main cast:
Party Leaders
Turnout
• 1997: 58.2%
• 2003: 49.4%
• 2007: 51.7% (Turnout reduced by 2.2% due to a large number of spoiled ballots).
A second order election.
Electronic Counter
Dear Me!
All Seats First Vote
%
Second Vote
%
All Seats
% Con 17 (-1) 16.6 13.9 13.2
Lab 46 (-4) 32.1 29.2 35.7
LibDem 16 (-1) 16.2 11.3 12.4
SNP 47 (+20) 32.9 31.0 36.4
Green 2 (-5) 0.1 4.0 1.6
Other
1 (-9) 2.2 10.6 0.8
2007 Summary
Total Seats
Constituency Seats
List Seats
Con 17 4 (5.5%) 13 (23.2%)
Lab 46 37 (50.7%) 9 (16.1%)
LibDem 16 11 (15.1%) 5 (8.9%)
SNP 47 21 (28.8%) 26 (46.4%)
Green 2
2 (3.6%)
Other Total 129
1 129
73 (100.1%)
1 (1.8%) 56 (100.0%)
2007
Seats by Type
Actual Seats
By First Vote
By Second
Vote %
Con 17 21 (-4) 18 (-1)
Lab 46 41 (+5) 38 (+8)
LibDem 16 21 (-5) 15 (+1)
SNP 47 42 (+5) 40 (+7)
Green 2
5 (-3)
Other
1 14 (-13)
2007
‘Fair Shares’?
Working of the system continued• High level of female representation, esp.
Labour and SSP. (2003)
Males Females % FemaleConservative 14 4 22.2Labour 22 28 56.0LibDem 15 2 11.8SNP 18 9 33.3Green 5 2 28.6SSP 2 4 66.7Other 2 2 50.0
Total 78 51 39.5
Working of the system continued• High level of female representation, esp.
Labour and SSP. (2007)
Males Females % Female Conservative 12 5 29.4 Labour 23 23 50.0 LibDem 14 2 12.5 SNP 35 12 25.5 Green 2 0.0 Other 0 1 100.0 Total 86 43 33.3
Working of the System continued
• The Conservatives MSPs were mostly returned from the regional lists
• The Labour MSPs were overwhelmingly returned by First Past the Post
• Labour and the SNP were over-represented (5 to 7/8).
Working of the system continued
• The way the votes were counted affected the outcome:– Labour would not have won AMs had they
been aggregated at national rather than regional level. (Based on 2nd Vote-share).
• Other parties were under-represented by 13 seats
Working of the system continued
• The Liberals held the balance of power in the parliament
• More parties contested the regional lists than FPTP constituencies
• All four main parties won fewer regional list than FPTP votes, esp. LibDems
Working of the system continued
• Ticket-Splitting– Minor parties gained representation through
the regional lists (SSP and Greens) in 2003 but barely so in 2005 (2 Greens + Margo MacDonald).
Government Formation• The Labour-LibDem Administration was
defeated.
• The SNP as the largest party sought a coalition with the LibDems
• LibDem activists would not support coalition with the SNP
Government formation continued
• The Conservatives are pariahs• The odds and sods too few and flakey• Therefore a minority single-party SNP
administration seeking support from others on an issue by issue basis, including the Conservatives.
• The minority status of the administration makes this an interesting parliament to follow
