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Do I really need to explain this? (sigh)

Posted by diogenes on 2026-October-11 16:48:38, Sunday
In reply to Re: Yes. nt posted by monkeyLostInHead on 2026-October-11 15:23:17, Sunday




Under FPTP, 100 percent of representation in a given constituency goes to the candidate with the most votes, regardless of the proportion of votes they actually won; all the other voters get no representation, and their votes are wasted.

Under PR, seats are allocated according to proportion of votes cast; hence, proportional representation. Nearly all voters get representation.

There are various ways of achieving this outcome. Under AMS (used for the Scottish Parliament) voters have two votes, one for the constituency candidate, and a second vote for a party list from which additional members are added to the assembly, so that those not represented by their constituency MSP get representation through the list MSPs.

My own preference would be the closed list used for the Welsh Senedd, in which there are multi-member constituencies with candidates elected under the D’Hondt system. Keep it simple.

In national elections under any system of PR, a party with a minority support will not be handed a ridiculous majority, but will have to form a coalition with other parties. By contrast, in the last GE, Labour won two-thirds of the seats with just one third of the votes.



diogenes



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