3) Electoral systems

First past the post

Voting system where the candidate with the most votes wins the constitutency

Plurality

The most votes, more votes than anyone else

Safe seat

A constituency that is dominated and often won by the same party each election

Marginal seat

A constituency where more than one party has a chance of winning

Winner’s bonus

When a party wins just enough votes to win the entire constituency, which lead to a dispraportionate seat share in Parliament

Tactical voting

When someone dose not vote for their preference and votes for someone else to prevent their least liked candidate from winning

Majority gouvernment

When one party has a majority of seats in Parliament

Hung parliaament

When no party has a majority of seats so the gouvernment is formed by a minority gouvernment or a coalition

Coalition gouvernment

When two or more parties are for the gouvernment together to form a majority because no party on it’s own has a majority

Minority gouvernment

When one party make up the gouvernment but does not have a majority so it functions by making deals with other parties to support it during key votes

Supplemantary voting

Voter get to vote for their first and second preference and the winner has to get to as close to 50% as possible

Additional members system

Where people vote for a constituency representative using FPTP (2/3 of seats) and then votes for a party to represent their region in parliament (1/3 of seats)

Proportional representation

An electoral system that awards seats in proportion to the votes parties got

Single transferable vote

Voters get to rank all the candidate in order of preference, to get elected each candidate must meet a certain quota, this results in multiple representatives for the constituency