[EM] Request comments on MMP?

[Olli Salmi]

At 17:59 +0100 28.7.2003, James Gilmour wrote:
>Re MMP (AMS) for the Scottish Parliament elctions:
>>  Are your constituency candidates allowed to stand on the lists?
>
>Yes.  Some parties do, some parties don't.

I was just trying to understand the Bavarian system. They also have 
regions (17-57 seats), but the number of constituency seats is equal 
or only one more than the number of list seats in the region. 
Constituency candidates must be on the lists. However, in their own 
constituencies they can't be on the list. Parties get seats according 
to the list votes (largest remainder, the Constitutional Court has 
outlawed d'Hondt). If there are overhang seats the assembly is 
enlarged correspondingly. Only parties that reach the 5% threshold 
get seats or are allowed constituency seats. The list vote can be 
given to a candidate or a party. The list seats are given to the top 
vote-getters and constituency candidates get their constituency votes 
added to their list votes for that purpose. So it's open list MMP.

There are two ballot papers, a small one and a large one.

You can check here if I've understood it correctly.
http://www.statistik.bayern.de/zweiter_teil
...

>  > No doubt they had many compelling arguments for it.
>
>Yes - like it will ensure we are the largest party even if the 
>distorted results fail to give us an
>overall majority.

Ah, but they couldn't use that publicly, could they?

Olli Salmi