Embedded Files
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a constitutional monarchy with a unitary state structure and a parliamentary form of government. In the Economist Democracy Index 2024, it received an overall score of 8.34/10 ("full democracy"), and a rating of 9.58/10 for electoral processes and pluralism. The country is a member of the European Union.
Parliament
Parliament
Scottish parliament
Scottish parliament
The Scottish Parliament has 129 members (MSPs) and is elected under a regionalised mixed proportional type system, known locally as the additional member system (AMS). The high degree of proportionality of the results is made possible by the top-up (compensatory) seats. Citizenship is not a condition for the right to vote, only residence in Scotland, but prior registration is required. Photo ID is not required for voting. The minimum age for active suffrage (the right to vote) is 16 years, and for passive suffrage (the right to stand for election) it is 18 years. Voting is not compulsory, postal voting and proxy voting are possible, but there is no possibility of voting at embassies or online. In-person voting is possible for one day (Thursday).
Scotland is divided into 8 regions and within these a total of 73 single-member constituencies. In each region, 7 seats are filled from closed party lists (no preference votes). On the ballot paper, voters may vote separately for an individual candidate and a party list (split ticket voting is allowed). In a single-seat constituency, the winner is chosen by a single-round first-preference plurality (FPP) system, also known as first-past-the-post voting (FPTP).
The allocation of seats between party lists is done by the D'Hondt (Jefferson) method, but the 7 seats per region are allocated taking into account the seats already won by the parties in the single-seat constituencies (seat-linkage). The system is known in the United Kingdom as the additional-member system (AMS), but it basically works on the same principle as the New Zealand or German mixed proportional systems. However, in contrast to the current New Zealand system (and also several German states), even if overhang seats appear, the number of members of parliament are not increased (fixed-sized assembly). Also, unlike in the current German Bundestag system, overhang seats can be kept by the parties, so some parties can get more seats than their proportional share.
Welsh Senedd
Welsh Senedd
Notes
Notes
This is the description of the electoral system of Denmark as of 2026.04.29 on Electoral Knowledgebase. Sources and further information on this topic:
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse