There’s a general election in Israel; famously it has a a fissiparous PR system. Here is a note on how it works as far as I can tell and been told.. …

There are 120 seats elected by a version of PR with a single constituency. This means that quota js .83% of the electorate, about 36.4 thousand votes assuming 4,4m voters, except, a party needs 3.25% of the vote to be allowed a single seat i.e. they need to be popular enough to win four seats to win one. Secondly, the transfer of surpluses is only allowed if there is an inter-party agreement. i.e. the transfer of surpluses belongs to the party not the voter.

Strictly speaking this is a closed list system using the D’Hondt counting method.

There is a risk that one’s vote gets trapped in a small party which fails to win a single seat and is thus wasted. This is a risk for the voter and that is one reason why the smaller parties really want to sign agreements.

Is it the system that’s at fault?

Dave Politics , ,

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