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Plurality voting
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==International examples== Plurality voting is used for local and/or national elections in 43 of the 193 countries that are members of the [[United Nations]]. It is particularly prevalent in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and India.<ref>{{cite web |date=20 May 2008 |title=The Global Distribution of Electoral Systems |url=http://aceproject.org/epic-en/es#ES05 |access-date=8 May 2010 |publisher=Aceproject.org}}</ref> === General elections in the United Kingdom === The United Kingdom, like the United States and Canada, uses single-member districts as the base for [[UK general election|national elections]]. Each electoral district (constituency) chooses one [[member of parliament]], the candidate who gets the most votes, whether or not they get at least 50% of the votes cast ("first past the post"). In 1992, for example, a [[Scottish Liberal Democrats|Liberal Democrat in Scotland]] won a seat ([[Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber (UK Parliament constituency)#Elections|Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber]]) with just 26% of the votes. The system of single-member districts with plurality winners tends to produce two large political parties. In countries with proportional representation there is not such a great incentive to vote for a large party, which contributes to [[multi-party system]]s. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland use the first-past-the-post system for UK general elections but versions of proportional representation for elections to their own assemblies and parliaments. All of the UK used one form or [[Party-list proportional representation|another of proportional representation]] for European Parliament elections. The countries that inherited the British majoritarian system tend toward two large parties: one left and the other right, such as the U.S. Democrats and Republicans. Canada is an exception, with three major political parties consisting of the New Democratic Party, which is to the left; the Conservative Party, which is to the right; and the Liberal Party, which is slightly off-centre but to the left. A fourth party that no longer has major party status is the separatist Bloc Québécois party, which is territorial and runs only in Quebec. New Zealand once used the British system, which yielded two large parties as well. It also left many New Zealanders unhappy because other viewpoints were ignored, which made the [[New Zealand Parliament]] in 1993 adopt a new electoral law modelled on [[Elections in Germany#Election system|Germany's system]] of proportional representation (PR) with a partial selection by constituencies. New Zealand soon developed a more complex party system.<ref>[[Michael Roskin|Roskin, Michael]], ''Countries and Concepts'' (2007)</ref> After the [[2015 United Kingdom general election|2015 UK general election]], there were calls from [[UKIP]] for a switch to the use of proportional representation after it received 3,881,129 votes that produced only one MP.<ref>{{cite web |title=Reckless Out Amid UKIP Frustration at System |work=Sky News |url=http://news.sky.com/story/1479845/reckless-out-amid-ukip-frustration-at-system |access-date=8 May 2015 |publisher=[[Sky News]]}}</ref> The Green Party was similarly underrepresented, which contrasted greatly with the SNP, a Scottish separatist party that received only 1,454,436 votes but won 56 seats because of more geographically concentrated support. The United Kingdom continues to use the first-past-the-post electoral system for general elections, and for local government elections in England and Wales. Changes to the UK system have been proposed, and alternatives were examined by the [[Jenkins Commission (UK)|Jenkins Commission]] in the late 1990s. After the formation of a new [[Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition|coalition government]] in 2010, it was announced as part of the [[Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement|coalition agreement]] that a [[2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum|referendum]] would be held on switching to the [[Instant-runoff voting|alternative vote system]]. However the alternative vote system was rejected 2–1 by British voters in a [[2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum|referendum held on 5 May 2011]]. === Outside the United Kingdom === Canada also uses FPTP for national and [[Provinces and territories of Canada|provincial]] elections. In May 2005 the Canadian province of [[British Columbia]] had a referendum on abolishing single-member district plurality in favour of multi-member districts with the [[Single transferable vote|Single Transferable Vote]] system after the [[Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform (British Columbia)|Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform]] made a recommendation for the reform. The referendum obtained 57% of the vote, but failed to meet the 60% requirement for passing. A second referendum was held in May 2009, this time the province's voters defeated the change with 39% voting in favour. An [[2007 Ontario electoral reform referendum|October 2007 referendum]] in the Canadian province of [[Ontario]] on adopting a [[mixed-member proportional representation|Mixed Member Proportional]] system, also requiring 60% approval, failed with only 36.9% voting in favour. British Columbia [[2018 British Columbia electoral reform referendum|again called a referendum on the issue in 2018]] which was defeated by 62% voting to keep current system. Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Republic of Ireland, Australia and New Zealand are notable examples of countries within the UK, or with previous links to it, that use non-FPTP electoral systems (Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales use FPTP in United Kingdom general elections, however). Nations which have undergone democratic reforms since 1990 but have not adopted the FPTP system include South Africa, almost all of the former Eastern bloc nations, Russia, and Afghanistan. ===List of countries=== {{See also|List of electoral systems by country}} Countries that use plurality voting to elect the lower or only house of their legislature include:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Electoral Systems |url=http://aceproject.org/epic-en/CDTable?question=ES005 |access-date=2015-11-03 |publisher=ACE Electoral Knowledge Network |archive-date=26 August 2014 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140826220250/http://aceproject.org/epic-en/CDTable?question=ES005 |url-status=dead }}</ref> (Some of these may be undemocratic systems where there is effectively only one candidate allowed anyway.) {{div col|colwidth=22em}} *[[Antigua and Barbuda]] *[[Azerbaijan]] *[[Bahamas]] *[[Bangladesh]] *[[Barbados]] *[[Belize]] *[[Bermuda]] *[[Bhutan]] *[[Botswana]] *[[Burma (Myanmar)]] *[[Canada]] *[[Comoros]] *[[Congo (Brazzaville)]] *[[Cook Islands]] *[[Côte d'Ivoire]] *[[Dominica]] *[[Eritrea]] *[[Ethiopia]] *[[Gabon]] *[[Gambia]] *[[Ghana]] *[[Grenada]] *[[India]] *[[Iran]] *[[Jamaica]] *[[Kenya]] *[[Kuwait]] *[[Laos]] *[[Liberia]] *[[Malawi]] *[[Malaysia]] *[[Maldives]] *[[Marshall Islands]] *[[Federated States of Micronesia]] *[[Nigeria]] *[[Niue]] *[[Oman]] *[[Palau]] *[[Saint Kitts and Nevis]] *[[Saint Lucia]] *[[Saint Vincent and the Grenadines]] *[[Samoa]] *[[Seychelles]] *[[Sierra Leone]] *[[Singapore]] *[[Solomon Islands]] *[[Swaziland]] *[[Tanzania]] *[[Tonga]] *[[Trinidad and Tobago]] *[[Tuvalu]] *[[Uganda]] *[[United Kingdom]] *[[United States]] *[[Yemen]] *[[Zambia]] {{div col end}}
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