Single Member Plurality

Single Member Plurality (SMP) electoral systems, some times known as fist past the post, are simple systems to administer. The candidate who gets more votes than any other candidate is declared the winner.  Depending upon the number of candidates and their relative popularity, the winning candidate may or may not need a majority of votes to win.

Multi-Member Plurality

Multi Member Plurality electoral systems, are only slightly more complicated to administer. Top candidates who get more votes than any other candidate are declared the winner.  In the following example, there are two members to elect, and the top two candidates are declared elected

Single Member Plurality (SMP)

Single Member Plurality (SMP) electoral systems, some times known as fist past the post, are simple systems to administer. The candidate who gets more votes than any other candidate is declared the winner.  Depending upon the number of candidates and their relative popularity, the winning candidate may or may not need a majority of votes to win.

SMP elections can led to a significant distortion between the percentage of votes and the percentage of seats a party wins across a whole province or country. This arises because of the geographic distribution of votes. In the following two hypothetical elections, each party wins the same amount votes, but they are distributed differently across the province.