Could someone explain Mixed Member Proportional Representation simply? I tried Wikipedia but I tend to zone out when things get too wordy.
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It’s an electoral system that essentially tries to balance a First-Past-The-Post style “clear winner” outcome with a “proportionality” outcome. The ideal is to get the best parts of both systems.
Normally what happens is that voters issue TWO votes at an election – one for their local district and one for their preferred party. If a given party’s total seats are deemed to be NOT in proportion with their overall vote, they are awarded additional parliamentary members to make up the difference.
For example, Party X wins 10% of the vote but only 5% of the seats. They are then awarded additional members such that they end up with a total of 10% of the total members in parliament.
This is seen to avoid the main drawback of FPTP, where “winner takes all” even if the result is exceptionally close, while still ensuring each district has one clear winner.
It also helps in cases where a voter might strongly like their own local representative even if they don’t represent their preferred party (or vice versa). Voters can express their personal opinion with their local district vote, but still vote their preferred party with their party vote.
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