Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Refimprove Template:Electoral systems Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively vote for only political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some influence, that would be called an open list. Closed list systems are still commonly used in party-list proportional representation, and most mixed electoral systems also use closed lists in their party list component. Many countries, however have changed their electoral systems to use open lists to incorporate personalised representation to their proportional systems.
In closed list systems, each political party has pre-decided who will receive the seats allocated to that party in the elections,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> so that the candidates positioned highest on this list tend to always get a seat in the parliament while the candidates positioned very low on the closed list will not. However, the candidates "at the water mark" of a given party are in the position of either losing or winning their seat depending on the number of votes the party gets. "The water mark" is the number of seats a specific party can be expected to achieve. The number of seats that the party wins, combined with the candidates' positions on the party's list, will then determine whether a particular candidate will get a seat.
List of countries using closed list systemsEdit
Proportional representationEdit
- Template:Flagicon Algeria
- Template:Flagicon Angola
- Template:Flagicon Argentina
- Template:Flagicon Armenia
- Template:Flagicon Benin
- Template:Flagicon Burkina Faso
- Template:Flagicon Burundi
- Template:Flagicon Cambodia
- Template:Flagicon Colombia (depending on the party)
- Template:Flagicon Costa Rica
- Template:Flagicon Dominican Republic<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Template:Flagicon Equatorial Guinea
- Template:Flagicon Guatemala
- Template:Flagicon Guinea-Bissau
- Template:Flagicon Guyana
- Template:Flagicon Hong Kong (1997–2016)
- Template:Flagicon Israel
- Template:Flagicon Kazakhstan<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Template:Flagicon Kyrgyzstan
- Template:Flagicon Lithuania (1992–1997) (Seimas and municipalities' councils)
- Template:Flagicon Moldova
- Template:Flagicon Montenegro
- Template:Flagicon Morocco
- Template:Flagicon Mozambique
- Template:Flagicon Namibia<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Template:Flagicon Nicaragua
- Template:Flagicon Niger
- Template:Flagicon North Macedonia
- Template:Flagicon Norway (de facto)
- Template:Flagicon Paraguay
- Template:Flagicon Portugal
- Template:Flagicon Romania<ref name="ro2016">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Template:Flagicon Rwanda
- Template:Flagicon Serbia
- Template:Flagicon South Africa
- Template:Flagicon Spain
- Template:Flagicon Sri Lanka
- Template:Flagicon Timor-Leste
- Template:Flagicon Togo
- Template:Flagicon Tunisia
- Template:Flagicon Turkey
- Template:Flagicon Uruguay
- Template:Flagicon Wales (from 2026)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Mixed electoral systemsEdit
Mixed electoral system using closed lists for the proportional componentTemplate:Div col
- Template:Flagicon Andorra
- Template:Flagicon Hungary
- Template:Flagicon Germany (mixed-member proportional representation)
- Template:Flagicon Italy
- Template:Flagicon New Zealand (mixed-member proportional representation)
- Template:Flagicon Russia
- Template:Flagicon Scotland
- Template:Flagicon Taiwan
- Template:Flagicon Wales (1999–2026)
- Template:Div col end
Majoritarian representationEdit
Party block voting (general ticket) with a closed list Template:Div col
- Template:Flagicon Côte d'Ivoire (party block voting in multi-member districts)
- Template:Flagicon Singapore (party block voting in multi-member districts)
- Template:Flagicon United States (electoral college)
- Template:Div col end
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Country profiles at IFES
- Open, Closed and Free Lists at Ace Project