Scottish Parliamentary elections
The voting system
The Additional Member System (a combination of first past the
post and closed list proportional representation).
Who am I voting
for?
If you live in Scotland, you are represented
by eight MSPs. One represents your Scottish Parliament constituency
and the other seven all represent your region. You have two votes;
one for a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for your Scottish
Parliamentary constituency and one for the seven regional MSPs for
your region of Scotland.
How to vote
Always read the instructions for filling in the ballot papers
carefully, even if you have voted before.
You will receive two ballot papers.
On the lilac coloured ballot paper you
will vote for your constituency MSP. The ballot paper lists the
name of each candidate along with their party name and party
logo.
Simply put an X (a cross) next to the
one candidate that you wish to vote for.
On the peach coloured ballot paper you vote
for a party or independent candidate competing for the seven
regional seats for your region of Scotland. The ballot paper lists
political parties and independent candidates.
Simply put an X (a cross) next to the party or
independent candidate that you wish to vote for.
If you make a mistake then you can ask
the polling staff to give you another ballot paper.
You may also be voting in other
elections on the same day.
Who is elected?
There are 73 constituencies, each represented by one MSP. In
each constituency the candidate with the most votes is elected;
they do not need to get more than half of the votes cast. If there
is a tie then a candidate is selected by the drawing of lots (i.e.
a method of selection by chance such as tossing a coin or picking a
name out of a hat).
There are also 8 regions, each electing
7 regional MSPs. There are therefore 56 regional seats; these seats
are awarded using a formula. The formula is the total number of
regional votes received by a party or independent candidate divided
by the number of seats (constituency and regional) already gained
in that region +1. The party with the highest result after the
formula is applied gain an additional seat. The calculation is
repeated until all the additional seats have been awarded.
So, for a party with no seats the
number of votes received is divided by one, and so stays the same.
If the party already has one seat in that region then its number of
votes is divided by two, if it has two seats in that region it is
divided by three, and so on.
This means that the more seats you have
already won, the harder it is to gain extra seats, so the overall
allocation of seats is proportional to the number of votes
received. The number of seats each party has includes any
constituency seats won in that region and regional seats already
awarded.
The first regional seat that a party
wins goes to the first person on its list for that region, the
second seat to the second person, and so on, until the party has
either not won any more seats or has run out of names on its list.
An independent candidate is treated as though he or she were a
party with only one name on its list.