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 60
 

In Belgium and Norway, the voter may give a priority number to a candidate. The candidate with the highest number of number-one positions is placed first. However, those ballots where the voters have made no changes (preferences) count as a vote for number one. Therefore, to avoid such effect, more than half of the votes would need to be cast for the same candidate. In practice, this rarely happens, which therefore leads these systems to be de facto closed-list system, even if preference vote is allowed.