| A joint Politics and Economics series |
| Social choice and electoral systems |
|---|
 |
 Mathematicsportal |
This is a list of electoral systems by country in alphabetical order. An electoral system is used to elect national legislatures and heads of state.
| A joint Politics and Economics series |
| Social choice and electoral systems |
|---|
| |
| Mathematicsportal |
This is a list of electoral systems by country in alphabetical order. An electoral system is used to elect national legislatures and heads of state.
 Head of state |  Lower house or unicameral legislature |  Upper house |
|---|---|---|
Not elected (mostly monarchies) In transition No information | Single-member constituencies: Multi-member constituencies, majoritarian: Multi-member constituencies, proportional: Panachage (party-list PR, free list) Mixed majoritarian and proportional: Additional member system (party-list PR and FPTP seat linkage mixed system) (less proportional implementation of of MMP) Parallel voting (party-list PR and TRS) Parallel voting (party-list PR and BV or PBV) Vote linkage mixed system or limited Seat linkage mixed system (party-list PR and FPTP) ((partially compensatory semi-proportional implementation of of MMP) (party-list PR and FPTP) No relevant electoral system information: No elections Varies by state No information | Single-member constituencies: Multi-member constituencies, majoritarian: Mixed BV and SNTV Multi-member constituencies, proportional: Mixed majoritarian and proportional: Parallel voting (party-list PR and BV or PBV) Parallel voting (party-list PR and SNTV) Other: Varies by federal states, or constituency Indirect election: Partly elected by electoral college or local/regional legislatures, partly elected in single-member districts by FPTP, and partly appointed by head of state No relevant electoral system information: No elections |
According to the Economist Democracy Index 2023 on electoral process and pluralism. These countries have no elections or sham elections.
| Country | Body or office | Type of body or office | Electoral system | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | Currently no elections are held | |||
| Azerbaijan | President | Head of State | First-past-the-post | |
| National Assembly | Unicameral legislature | First-past-the-post | ||
| Bahrain | King | Head of State | Hereditary monarchy | |
| Consultative Council | Upper chamber of legislature | Appointed by the King | ||
| Council of Representatives | Lower chamber of legislature | Two-round system | ||
| Belarus | President | Head of State and Government | Two-round system | |
| Council of Republic | Upper chamber of legislature | Elected by regional councils | ||
| House of Representatives | Lower chamber of legislature | First-past-the-post | ||
| Brunei | Currently no elections are held | |||
| Burkina Faso | Currently no elections are held | |||
| Burundi | President | Head of State and Government | Two-round system | |
| Senate | Upper chamber of legislature |
| ||
| National Assembly | Lower chamber of legislature | Party-list proportional representation | ||
| Cambodia | King | Head of State | Elective monarchy | |
| Senate | Upper chamber of legislature |
| ||
| National Assembly | Lower chamber of legislature | Party-list proportional representation | ||
| Cameroon | President | Head of State and Government | First-past-the-post | |
| Senate | Upper chamber of legislature |
| ||
| National Assembly | Lower chamber of legislature |
| ||
| Central African Republic | President | Head of State and Government | Two-round system | |
| National Assembly | Lower chamber of legislature | Two-round system | ||
| Chad | Currently no elections are held | |||
| China | Currently no elections are held | |||
| Comoros | President | Head of State and Government | Two-round system | |
| Assembly of the Union | Unicameral legislature | Two-round system | ||
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | President | Head of State | First-past-the-post | |
| Senate | Upper chamber of legislature |
| ||
| National Assembly | Lower chamber of legislature | |||
| Republic of the Congo | President | Head of State | Two-round system | |
| Senate | Upper chamber of legislature | Elected by regional councils | ||
| National Assembly | Lower chamber of legislature | Two-round system | ||
| Cuba | President | Head of state | Elected by the National Assembly | |
| National Assembly of People's Power | Unicameral legislature | Two-round system | ||
| Djibouti | President | Head of State and Government | Two-round system | |
| National Assembly | Unicameral legislature | Mixed-member majoritarian:
| ||
| East Timor | President | Head of State | Two-round system | |
| Parliament | Unicameral legislature | Party-list proportional representation | ||
| Ecuador | President | Head of State and Government | Two-round system | |
| National Congress | Unicameral legislature | Party-list proportional representation | ||
| Egypt | President | Head of State | Two-round system | |
| House of Representatives | Unicameral legislature | Parallel voting:
| ||
| Equatorial Guinea | President | Head of State and Government | First-past-the-post | |
| Senate | Upper chamber of legislature |
| ||
| Chamber of People's Representatives | Lower chamber of legislature | Party-list proportional representation | ||
| Eritrea | Currently no elections are held | |||
| Eswatini | Ngwenyama | Head of State | Hereditary monarchy | |
| Senate | Upper chamber of legislature |
| ||
| House of Assembly | Lower chamber of legislature | First-past-the-post | ||
| Ethiopia | President | Head of State | Elected by the Federal Parliamentary Assembly | |
| House of Federation | Upper chamber of legislature | Elected by the State Councils | ||
| House of Peoples' Representatives | Lower chamber of legislature | First-past-the-post | ||
| Gabon | Currently no elections are held | |||
| Guinea | Currently no elections are held | |||
| Guinea-Bissau | President | Head of State | Two-round system | |
| National People's Assembly | Unicameral legislature | Party-list proportional representation | ||
| Haiti | President | Head of State | Two-round system | |
| Senate | Upper chamber of legislature | Two-round system | ||
| Chamber of Deputies | Lower chamber of legislature | Two-round system | ||
| Iran | Supreme Leader | Head of State | Elected by the Assembly of Experts | |
| President | Head of Government | Two-round system | ||
| Islamic Consultative Assembly | Unicameral legislature | |||
| Assembly of Experts | Electoral College | |||
| Kuwait | Emir | Head of state | Hereditary monarchy | |
| National Assembly | Unicameral legislature | Single non-transferable vote | ||
| Laos | President | Head of state | Elected by the National Assembly | |
| National Assembly | Unicameral legislature | Plurality block voting | ||
| Libya | Currently no elections are held | |||
| Mali | Currently no elections are held | |||
| Mauritania | President | Head of State | Two-round system | |
| National Assembly | Unicameral legislature |
| ||
| Mozambique | President | Head of State and Government | Two-round system | |
| Assembly of the Republic | Unicameral legislature | Party-list proportional representation | ||
| Myanmar | Currently no elections are held | |||
| Nicaragua | President | Head of State and Government | First-past-the-post | |
| National Assembly | Unicameral legislature | Party-list proportional representation | ||
| Niger | Currently no elections are held | |||
| North Korea | Supreme People's Assembly | Unicameral legislature | First-past-the-post | |
| Oman | Sultan | Head of State and Government | Hereditary monarchy | |
| Council of State | Upper chamber of legislature | Appointed by the Sultan | ||
| Consultative Assembly | Lower chamber of legislature | Single non-transferable vote | ||
| Qatar | Emir | Head of state | Hereditary monarchy | |
| Consultative Assembly | Unicameral legislature | First-past-the-post | ||
| Russia | President | Head of State | Two-round system | |
| Federation Council | Upper chamber of legislature | Elected by federal subjects' legislatures | ||
| State Duma | Lower chamber of legislature | Parallel voting:
| ||
| Rwanda | President | Head of State and Government | First-past-the-post | |
| Senate | Upper chamber of legislature |
| ||
| Chamber of Deputies | Lower chamber of legislature |
| ||
| Saudi Arabia | Currently no elections are held | |||
| South Sudan | Currently no elections are held | |||
| Sudan | Currently no elections are held | |||
| Suriname | President | Head of State and Government | Elected by the National Assembly | |
| National Assembly | Unicameral legislature | Party-list proportional representation | ||
| Syria | President | Head of State and Government | Two-round system | |
| People's Council | Unicameral legislature | Party block voting | ||
| Tajikistan | President | Head of State and Government | Two-round system | |
| National Assembly | Upper chamber of legislature |
| ||
| Assembly of Representatives | Lower chamber of legislature | Parallel voting:
| ||
| Togo | President | Head of State and Government | Two-round system | |
| National Assembly | Unicameral legislature | Party-list proportional representation | ||
| Turkmenistan | President | Head of State and Government | Two-round system | |
| Assembly | Unicameral of legislature | First-past-the-post | ||
| Uzbekistan | President | Head of State and Government | Two-round system | |
| Senate | Upper chamber of legislature |
| ||
| Legislative Chamber | Lower chamber of legislature | Two-round system | ||
| Vatican City | Pope | Head of State | Elective monarchy | |
| Venezuela | President | Head of State and Government | First-past-the-post | |
| National Assembly | Unicameral legislature | Parallel voting:
| ||
| Vietnam | President | Head of State | Elected by the National Assembly | |
| National Assembly | Unicameral legislature | Two-round system | ||
| Yemen | Currently no elections are held | |||
| Zimbabwe | President | Head of State and Government | Two-round system | |
| Senate | Upper chamber of legislature |
| ||
| National Assembly | Lower chamber of legislature | Parallel voting:
| ||
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Proportional representation (PR) refers to any type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions among voters. The essence of such systems is that all votes cast – or almost all votes cast – contribute to the result and are effectively used to help elect someone. Under other election systems, a bare plurality or a scant majority are all that are used to elect candidates. PR systems provide balanced representation to different factions, reflecting how votes are cast.
Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered political parties, with each party being allocated a certain number of seats roughly proportional to their share of the vote.
Single non-transferable vote or SNTV is an electoral system used to elect multiple winners. It is a semi-proportional variant of first-past-the-post voting, applied to multi-member districts where each voter casts just one vote. It can also be seen as a variant of STV but with no vote transfers.
Mixed-member proportional representation is a type of representation provided by some mixed electoral systems which combine local winner-take-all elections with a compensatory tier with party lists, in a way that produces proportional representation overall. Like proportional representation, MMP is not a single system, but a principle and goal of several similar systems. Some systems designed to achieve proportionality are still called mixed-member proportional, even if they generally fall short of full proportionality. In this case, they provide semi-proportional representation.
Block or bloc voting refers to a class of electoral systems where multiple candidates are elected simultaneously. They do not guarantee minority representation and allow a group of voters to ensure that only their preferred candidates are elected. In these systems, a voter can select as many candidates as there are open seats. That is, the voter has as many votes to cast as the number of seats to fill. The block voting systems are among various election systems available for use in multi-member districts where the voting system allows for the selection of multiple winners at once.
In political science, parallel voting or superposition refers to the use of two or more electoral systems to elect different members of a legislature. More precisely, an electoral system is a superposition if it is a mixture of at least two tiers, which do not interact with each other in any way; one part of a legislature is elected using one method, while another part is elected using a different method, with all voters participating in both. Thus, the final results can be found by calculating the results for each system separately based on the votes alone, then adding them together. A system is called fusion or majority bonus, another independent mixture of two system but without two tiers. Superposition is also not the same as "coexistence", which when different districts in the same election use different systems. Superposition, fusion and coexistence are distinct from dependent mixed electoral systems like compensatory (corrective) and conditional 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.
Limited voting is a voting system in which electors have fewer votes than there are positions available. The positions are awarded to the candidates who receive the most votes. In the special case in which the voter may vote for only one candidate and there are two or more posts, this system is called the single non-transferable vote or sometimes the strictly limited vote.
The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) is an international, non-profit organisation founded in 1987. Based in Arlington, Virginia, United States, the organization assists and supports elections and electoral stakeholders. Since 1987, IFES has worked in 145 countries and has programs in more than 50 countries throughout Asia-Pacific, Africa, Eurasia, the Middle East, and North Africa, and the Americas.
Nauru elects on a national level a head of state and a legislature. Parliament has 19 members, elected for a three-year term in multi-seat constituencies. The president is elected for a three-year term by the parliament.
In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary widely across jurisdictions.
Plurality block voting is a type of block voting method for multi-winner elections. Each voter may cast as many votes as the number of seats to be filled. The candidates with the most votes are elected. The usual result when the candidates divide into parties is that the most-popular party in the district sees its full slate of candidates elected, even if the party does not have support of majority of the voters.
Electoral boundary delimitation is the drawing of boundaries of electoral precincts and related divisions involved in elections, such as states, counties or other municipalities. It can also be called "redistribution" and is used to prevent unbalance of population across districts. In the United States, it is called redistricting. Unbalanced or discriminatory delimitation is called "gerrymandering." Though there are no internationally agreed processes that guarantee fair delimitation, several organizations, such as the Commonwealth Secretariat, the European Union and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) have proposed guidelines for effective delimitation.
The ACE Electoral Knowledge Network is a web portal with information on elections designed to meet the needs of people working in the electoral field.
An electoral or voting system is a set of rules used to determine the results of an election. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections may take place in business, non-profit organisations and informal organisations. These rules govern all aspects of the voting process: when elections occur, who is allowed to vote, who can stand as a candidate, how ballots are marked and cast, how the ballots are counted, how votes translate into the election outcome, limits on campaign spending, and other factors that can affect the result. Political electoral systems are defined by constitutions and electoral laws, are typically conducted by election commissions, and can use multiple types of elections for different offices.
Electoral integrity refers to the fairness of the entire voting process and how well the process protects against election subversion, voter suppression, and other threats to free and fair elections. The consequences of unfree or unfair elections can include doubts in the legitimacy of the outcome, loss of faith in the democratic system, and reduced future participation.
The European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES) is a not-for-profit, private, non-partisan and independent foundation with its headquarters in the capital of Belgium, Brussels.
A mixed electoral system is one that uses different electoral systems to elect different seats in a legislature. Most often, this involves a winner-take-all component combined with a proportional component. The results of the combination may be mixed-member proportional (MMP), where the overall results of the elections are proportional, or mixed-member majoritarian, in which case the overall results are semi-proportional, retaining disproportionalities from the majoritarian component. Systems that use multiple types of combinations are sometimes called supermixed.
Mixed-member majoritarian representation (MMM) is type of a mixed electoral system combining winner-take-all and proportional methods, where the disproportional results of the winner-take-all part are dominant over the proportional component. Mixed member majoritarian systems are therefore categorized under semi-proportional representation, and are usually contrasted with mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) which aims to provide proportional representation compensation ("top-up") seats.