Guidelines to Assist National Minority Participation in the Electoral Process Page: 33 Addendum II ELECTORAL SYSTEMS: GLOSSARY OF TERMS Alternative Vote (AV) – A preferential, plurality-majority system used in single-member districts in which voters use numbers to mark their preferences on the ballot paper. A candidate who receives over 50% of first-preferences is declared elected. If no candidate achieves an absolute majority of first-preferences, votes are re-allocated until one candidate has an absolute majority of votes cast. Block Vote (BV) – A plurality-majority system used in multi-member districts in which electors have as many votes as there are candidates to be elected. Voting can be either candidate-centred or partycentred. Counting is identical to a First Past the Post system, with the candidates with the highest vote totals winning the seats. Closed List – A form of List Proportional Representation in which electors are restricted to voting for a party only, and cannot express a preference for any candidate within a party list. First Past the Post (FPTP) – The simplest form of plurality-majority electoral system, using singlemember districts, a categorical ballot and candidate-centred voting. The winning candidate is the one who gains more votes than any other candidate, but not necessarily a majority of votes. Free List – A form of List Proportional Representation which provides for apparentement or cumulation. Limited Vote – A plurality-majority system used in multi-member districts in which electors have more than one vote but fewer votes than there are candidates to be elected. Counting is identical to a First Past the Post system, with the candidates with the highest vote totals winning the seats. List Proportional Representation (List PR) – In its most simple form List PR involves each party presenting a list of candidates to the electorate, voters vote for a party, and parties receive seats in proportion to their overall share of the national vote. Winning candidates are taken from the lists. Majority-Plurality (Two-Round System) – In French Two-Round elections any candidate who has received the votes of over 12.5 per cent of the registered electorate in the first round can stand in the second round. Whoever wins the highest numbers of votes in the second round is then declared elected, regardless of whether they have won an absolute majority or not. We therefore refer to it as majority-plurality variant of the Two-Round System. Majority-Runoff (Two-Round System) – The most common method for the second round of voting in a Two-Round System is a straight “run-off” contest between the two highest vote-winners from the first round – this we term a majority-runoff system. Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) – Systems in which a proportion of the parliament (usually half) is elected from plurality-majority districts, while the remaining members are chosen from PR lists. Under MMP the list PR seats compensate for any disproportionality produced by the district seat results.