Electoral law: 20 EU countries have adopted a preferential voting system, with the exception of Germany, France and Spain
An analysis of European voting systems shows that the majority of Member States allow voters to express preferences, whilst the larger Member States use different methods that do not allow for preferences
Preferential voting: yes or no? Whenever the subject of electoral reform comes up (and there have already been three such reforms since 1994: the Porcellum, the Italicum and the Rosatellum), this issue always resurfaces. And the current electoral reform Stabilicum/Melonellum. If we look at how other EU countries operate, according to a survey carried out by Pagella Politica, 20 out of 27 Member States use a preferential voting system. However, among those not using such a system are all the countries comparable in size to Italia (Germany, France and Spain).
Who uses preferences
In the European Union, according to data compiled by Pagella Politica, ‘the countries whose electoral laws allow voters to express preferences are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden’. Extreme examples of the use of preferences include, for instance, Latvia and Luxembourg. In Latvia, negative preferences are also possible: the voter votes for a list of candidates and may add a positive vote for a candidate on the list as well as a negative vote for an unwelcome candidate. In Luxembourg, each voter has as many preference votes available as there are seats in the constituency (for example, 23) and may vote for an entire list or for individual candidates, even across different lists, casting up to two votes for the same candidate
The major countries
Germany, France and Spain, however, do not have a preferential voting system. In Germany, each voter has two votes: with the first vote, the voter chooses a candidate in their single-member constituency, whilst with the second vote they vote for the party list. It is this second vote that determines the total number of seats allocated to each party in the Bundestag. In France, members of the National Assembly are elected every five years under a two-round first-past-the-post system. The Spanish electoral system uses provinces as constituencies, closed lists and a 3 per cent threshold. However, with the exception of Madrid and Barcelona, the closed lists are on average very short (3–5 names), ensuring a higher ratio of elected representatives to voters.
