MMP Scottish Style: Why do Scots Call 44% a Majority?

Last thursday, 5 May, Scotland elected 129 MSPs. Scottish elections use MMP - the same system as we are familiar with in New Zealand - but not the same MMP. In the Scottish election, the SNP won a 53.5% majority of seats with 44% of the vote. (representing 47.2% of party votes for the 5 elected parties and 1 elected independent, 47.7% of the party votes for just the 5 parties which got over 4% and 50.1% of the party votes for just the 4 parties which got over 5%)

Coming soon: An analysis of the Scottish election under various subtly different types of MMP.

Some summary: (detail to come later)

System (variations of MMP)	Used in	MSPs
		SNP	Lab	Con	Lib Dem	Greens	Other	Total
D'Hondt, No Overhang, no exclusion, Regions	Scotland	69	37	15	5	2	1	129
Same only with St Laguë		64	34	15	7	7	2	129
St Laguë, Overhang, 5% exclusion, no Regions	New Zealand	64	39	18	8			129
D'Hondt, No Overhang, no exclusion, only 4 Regions	Scotland*	64	38	15	7	4	1	129
St Laguë, Overhang, Scandinavian exclusion**, no Regions	My Ideal System	58	35	16	7	6	7	129
Exact Proportion to Votes		56.8	33.9	15.9	6.7	5.6	10.0	129

* - This is if each Region was merged with one of its neibours, i.e. Region 1: Highlands & Islands plus North East, Region 2: Mid & Fife plus Central, Region 3: Glasgow plus West, Region 4: Lothian plus South

** - where the first quotient is 1.4 in stead of 1. The following quotients remain at 3, 5, 7 etc.