voting system of hungary erettsegi topic
DESCRIPTION
Voting system of HungaryTRANSCRIPT
POLITICAL SYSTEM OF HUNGARY
What kind of a political system?
• Parliamentary democracy → • Government is responsible to Parliament (only parliament can remove government)
• President is weak and has no control over government (unlike in Presidential systems).
• Parliament is the main law-making body
• Parliament is elected by the people every 4 years (free elections).
Voting system
• Free elections are… • Equal (1 man = 1 vote)
• General (basically everybody over 18 can vote)
• Direct (votes count directly)
• Secret (nobody knows who you vote for)
Voting systems in the World
1. Single-winner methods (winner-take-all):
One constituency (district) → one winner
2. Proportional methods:
Parties set up lists and every party receives mandates (number of MPs) in proportion with the votes it received
• Single-winner methods:
- Disadvantage: disproportionate
- Advantage: strong and stable
government
(example: United Kingdom,
2005 elections)
Votes received
39%
36%
25%
Labour
Conservative
Liberal Democrats
Seats in Parliament
58%32%
10%
Labour
Conservative
Liberal Democrats
• Proportional methods:
- Disadvantage: unstable
governments
- Advantage: proportionate
Dutch parliament, 2006
16%
13%
10%8%3%16%
13%
10%8% 3%
(Christen-DemocratischAppèl, CDA)
(Partij van de Arbeid, PvdA)
(Socialistische Partij, SP)
(Volkspartij voor Vrijheid enDemocratie, VVD)
(Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV)
(Christen-DemocratischAppèl, CDA)
(Partij van de Arbeid, PvdA)
(Socialistische Partij, SP)
(Volkspartij voor Vrijheid enDemocratie, VVD)
(Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV)
Major Hungarian political parties
• MSZP – Hungarian Szocialist Party
• Fidesz – Alliance of Young Democrats
• KDNP – Christian Democratic Party
• SZDSZ – Alliance of Free Democrats
• MDF – Hungarian Democratic Forum
Fidesz and KDNP are allied and are usually indicated as Fidesz-KDNP
Hungarian voting system
• Mixed:
proportional (party lists)
and
single-winner (districts)
PARLIAMENT
Constituencies(Districts)176 MPs
Party lists(territorial
and national)210 MPs
Single-memberConstiuencies
I.
• Here you vote for a person. This is how your ballot looks like:
Constituencies II.• 176 individual districts,
every party has one candidate
• There are independent candidates
• You need 750 „recommendations” (kopogtató cédula) to compete
• There is only 1 winner in each district!
• 1st round: 50%+1 vote needed to get the mandate (majority)
• 2nd round: only the first three candidates (or the ones getting min. 15%) can participate and the candidate receiving the most votes gets the mandate (plurality)
• Example:
Elections in 2006
Party lists I. – territorial lists
1. Territorial lists
• Here you vote for a political party!
• There are 20 territories – the 19 counties + Budapest.
• Only political parties may compete!
• Every party that runs candidates (has collected at least 750 recommendations) in at least 25% of the territory → Territorial list.
(Example: in the Budapest district there are 32 single-member constituencies, i.e. 32 possibilities to run candidates. For a territorial list a party has to run at least 8 candidates)
• Maximum 152 mandates can be distributed. You receive a mandate in a territory after accomplishing a certain number of votes.
(Example: 28 mandates can be distributed in Budapest. Ca. 1 million people voted. This means that you need ca. 35.000 votes for 1 mandate. If you received 105.000 votes, you receive 3 mandates.)
Territorial lists
Results of the
Fidesz-KDNP list by county (2006)
Results of the MSZP list by county (2006)
Party lists II. - National lists
Votes NOT receiving a mandate are called fragment votes.
Example: in the territory of Budapest you need 35.000 votes to get a mandate. Your party gets 50.000 votes in Budapest, therefore you only get 1 mandate on the territorial list. But what happens to the remaining 15.000 votes? They go to another list:
2. National list• The fragment votes from the territorial lists and the single-member
constituencies are collected here – votes that did not get a mandate there can become mandates here.
• A minimum of 58 mandates are distributed here.• Only political parties may set up a national list…..if they have set up at least 7
territorial lists.
Election system: summary
176 mandates
VOTERS
Territorial lists
Single-memberconstituencies
National list
PARLIAMENT (386 members)
Vote No. 1.: for a candidate (person)
Vote No. 2.: for a party list
Fragment votes
58 mandates (min.)
152 mandates
(max.)
And…the threshold
• A party may only get into parliament if it receives a minimum of 5% of all the votes (on the party list).
• So if 6 million people cast their vote, your party needs at least 300.000 votes to get into Parliament.
Composition of the Parliamentof Hungary
•
Comprehension questions• What is a parliamentary democracy?• What are the conditions for free elections?• What voting systems do we know about?• What are the dis/advantages of the different systems?• How many votes does a voter cast at the Hungarian national
elections? • How many seats are there in the Hungarian Parliament?• What do you need „recommendations” (kopogtató cédula) for?• What are fragment votes?• What is a mandate?• What is a single-member constituency• Can individuals set up territorial lists?• Can individuals, who are not party-members compete in single-
member constituencies?• What is the threshold? Why do you think it was introduced?
Links
• www.valasztas.hu The official Hungarian election homepage (English+Hun)
• www.vokscentrum.hu A large collection of results, maps, graphs, etc. (English+Hun)
• www.magyarorszag.hu/english A portal about Hungary, including elections, citizen’s rights, etc. (useful for everyday matters, as well)
• Summary of the election process:• http
://www.valasztas.hu/parval2006/en/01/1_0.html