Sunday, May 8, 2011

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
1577
2
129
St Laguë, Overhang, 5% exclusion, no Regions
New Zealand
64
39
18
8


129
D'Hondt, No Overhang, no exclusion, only 4 RegionsScotland*
64
38
15
7
4
1
129
St Laguë, Overhang, Scandinavian exclusion**, no RegionsMy 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.