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  Tue, Jan 27, 2015
Allocation of Constituency Seats in the Hellenic Parliament (Vouli)
Since 2007, parliamentary elections in Greece have been carried out under a nationwide bonus-adjusted proportional representation (BAPR) electoral system. Nevertheless, the Greek electoral system provides for the subsequent allocation of 288 of 300 Hellenic Parliament (Vouli) mandates in fifty-six single- and multi-member constituencies, while the remaining twelve seats are apportioned on a nationwide basis, in the manner described below.

The twelve nationwide or state mandates are distributed among qualifying parties (that is, those polling at least three percent of the nationwide vote) by the largest remainder method of PR - the same method used for the nationwide allocation of 250 Vouli seats. These are then deducted from the parties' nationwide PR seat totals to obtain their corresponding constituency mandate totals, leaving 238 seats to be allocated in the fifty-six constituencies, plus fifty seats set aside as a majority bonus for the party with the largest nationwide vote total.

In single-member constituencies, seats are assigned to the qualifying party with the largest number of votes in each constituency, while in each multi-member constituency a Hare quota is calculated by dividing the total number of valid votes cast in the constituency (that is, votes cast for all parties, qualifying or otherwise) by the number of constituency seats. The number of constituency votes won by each qualifying party is then divided by the constituency's Hare quota, and the result, disregarding remainders, is the number of constituency seats initially assigned to the party. Any remaining seats in two- and three-seat constituencies are also distributed to the qualifying parties with the largest remainders, but should a party exceed its overall PR constituency seat allocation, it has to forfeit the excess mandates obtained in three-seat constituencies - and two-seat constituencies should the need arise - with the lowest vote remainders (ranked on the basis of absolute figures).

The qualifying parties are subsequently ranked in ascending order according to their nationwide vote totals, and for each party its corresponding multi-member constituency remainder vote totals are ranked in descending order; the party's largest remainders in constituencies where mandates remain available are assigned one seat each, until the party reaches its PR constituency seat total. In other words, these steps are carried out on a party-by-party basis, starting with the qualifying party with the smallest nationwide vote total, then the second smallest qualifying party, and so on until there are no parties with PR constituency seats to be filled. Finally, the fifty majority bonus seats are allocated to the winning party from the remaining unfilled seats in the multi-member constituencies.

The procedure for allocating Vouli seats among constituencies is probably one of the least understood aspects of Greece's electoral system, in no small measure due to its complexity. However, it must be emphasized that this procedure does not change the overall political party composition of the Hellenic Parliament, which is determined by the allocation of legislative mandates at the national level.

posted by Manuel Álvarez-Rivera : 01/27/2015 21:16 | permanent link