Belgian Elections 2007: The Background | 49 comments (49 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Belgian Elections 2007: The Background (4.00 / 3)

There are 11 electoral districts (nl), ranging in seats from 4 to 24. There is a general threshold of 5%, but, obviously, in a 4 seat district with proportional representation, a party needs to get at least 25%(1). On the other hand, small parties can evade the 5% hurdle in the bigger districts by making a 'list connection' to a big party.

A little less obviously, ina 4-seat district a party needs to get 20%. Sometimes it's even less.

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Jun 8th, 2007 at 11:50:00 AM EST

Re: Belgian Elections 2007: The Background (4.00 / 2)

My mathematical ignorance shines again! But you are right, with the D'Hondt method 20% will do as there is no way another party will get a higher percentage per seat when given the rest seat.

by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Fri Jun 8th, 2007 at 11:58:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Belgian Elections 2007: The Background (3.66 / 3)

It's called the Droop quota apparently. One can, in fact, use the minimum threshold and the Droop quota to seed the d'Hondt method.

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Jun 8th, 2007 at 12:33:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Belgian Elections 2007: The Background (4.00 / 2)

Interesting stuff. Wouldn't introducing the Droop quota as a seed of the D'Hondt method cause some kind of distortion of proportionality? You are in effect weighing the seats doubly.

by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Fri Jun 8th, 2007 at 01:05:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Belgian Elections 2007: The Background (4.00 / 3)

No, if you exceed the Droop quota you're guaranteed a number of seats regardless of the allocation system. So you can

exclude parties not making the threshold
allocate seats by full multiples of the droop quota
apply the d'Hondt method if there are any remaining seats unallocated

Step 2 just takes care of most of the initial steps of the d'Hondt method.

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Jun 8th, 2007 at 01:08:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Belgian Elections 2007: The Background (4.00 / 3)

The d'Hondt method uses the quotient of dividing the number of votes by the number of seats so far allocated, plus one. There is no double counting as the seats allocated by the droop quota are taken into account when applying the d'Hondt method.

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Jun 8th, 2007 at 01:13:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Belgian Elections 2007: The Background | 49 comments (49 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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