Editing Indirect election (section)

{{short description|Type of election}}
{{Elections}}{{More citations needed|date=June 2022}}
An '''indirect election''' or ''hierarchical voting,''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://arxiv.org/pdf/2110.02298.pdf |title=Tradeoffs is a voting systems, Lucas Böttcher, Georgia Kernell }}</ref> is an [[election]] in which voters do not choose directly among [[candidate]]s or parties for an office ([[Voting system|direct voting system]]), but elect people who in turn choose candidates or parties. It is one of the oldest forms of elections and is used by many countries for [[heads of state]] (such as [[president (government title)|president]]s), [[cabinet (government)|cabinets]], [[heads of government]] (such as [[prime minister]]s), and/or [[upper house]]s. It is also used for some [[supranational legislature]]s.

Positions that are indirectly elected may be chosen by a permanent body (such as a [[parliament]]) or by a special body convened solely for that purpose (such as an [[electoral college]]).

In nearly all cases the body that controls the federal [[executive government|executive branch]] (such as a [[cabinet (politics)|cabinet]]) is elected indirectly.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}} This includes the cabinets of most [[parliamentary system]]s; members of the public elect the parliamentarians, who then elect the cabinet. Upper houses, especially in federal republics, are often indirectly elected, either by the corresponding [[lower house]] or cabinet. An election can be partially indirect, for example in the case of [[indirect single transferable voting]], where only eliminated candidates select other candidates to transfer their vote share to. Similarly, supranational legislatures can be indirectly elected by constituent countries' legislatures or [[Executive (government)|executive governments]].