The Second Ballot The Second Ballot This is
The Second Ballot
The Second Ballot • This is used in France for elections to their National Assembly (the equivalent to the Commons) and for elections for the President.
The Second Ballot Characteristics 1 • There are single member constituencies. • The voters mark their ballot papers with an X against the candidate of their choice. • To win a candidate needs an overall majority of the votes cast (at least 50% +1). • If no candidate gets an overall majority a second election is held.
The Second Ballot Characteristics 2 • In France this is a week later: • a) In Presidential elections the top 2 candidates from the first election. • b) In National Assembly elections the candidates with less than 10% of the votes are eliminated and the rest are allowed to go forward to the second election where the result is determined by a simple majority.
French Presidential Election 2012 Candidates François Hollande Parties 1 st round Votes 2 nd round % Votes % Socialist Party & Radical Party of 10, 272, 705 28. 63% 18, 000, 668 51. 64% the Left (Parti socialiste - Parti radical de gauche) Nicolas Sarkozy Union for a Popular Movement 9, 753, 629 27. 18% 16, 860, 685 48. 36% (Union pour un mouvement populaire) Marine Le Pen National Front (Front national) 6, 421, 426 17. 90% Jean-Luc Mélenchon Left Front (Front de gauche) 3, 984, 822 11. 10% François Bayrou Democratic Movement 3, 275, 122 9. 13% (Mouvement démocrate) Eva Joly Europe Écologie–The Greens 828, 345 2. 31% (Europe Écologie–Les Verts) Nicolas Dupont. Arise the Republic (Debout la 643, 907 1. 79% Aignan République) Philippe Poutou New Anticapitalist Party (Nouveau 411, 160 1. 15% Parti anticapitaliste) Nathalie Arthaud Workers' Struggle (Lutte ouvrière) 202, 548 0. 56% Jacques Cheminade Solidarity and Progress (Solidarité 89, 545 0. 25% et Progrès)
The Second Ballot Advantages • It has most of the advantages of the simple majority system: it is easy to understand; it would be likely to produce one party strong and stable governments; and it is easy to hold a government responsible for its actions. • It would produce more candidates with an overall majority.
The Second Ballot Disadvantages • It has most of the disadvantages of the simple majority system: a party would be able to gain an overall majority of seats without an overall majority of votes; a party could gain more seats than another which had gained more votes; votes can be wasted; and it is not a PR system so that small parties would be underrepresented and large parties would overrepresented. • The majorities which it produces are rather artificial. • It tends to produce electoral deals which are undesirable.
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