Home > 3.2 Proportional systems > Report on Proportional Electoral Systems: The Allocation of seats inside the lists (open/closed) lists
 
 
 
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Paragraph 18
 

As underlined by the Venice Commission in its Report on Electoral Systems - Overview of available solutions and selection criteria, “once the seats have been distributed among the political parties, the question arises as to how to distribute them within the lists in the case of elections under a system of proportional representation. That distribution can be done in many ways (…). In the simplest case, that of closed lists, candidates are elected in the order in which they appear on the lists. In this case, the political parties have very substantial power, since they determine the order in which candidates appear. In the case of preferential, cumulative and rank-ordered voting on the other side, the electors determine the position of each candidate on the list which they compose. Lastly, the single transferable vote, cross-voting (panachage) and open or blank lists, when applied to the letter, inherently incorporate a system for allocating seats within lists.”