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Following the publication of the Scottish Constitutional Convention's completed blueprint for a Scottish Parliament on 30 November 1995, this page deals in detail with one of the most debated aspects of the plan - the electoral system. The Convention has opted for a variant of the Addition Member System (AMS). The basic principle of this system is that fairness is ensured by a parliament composed of individual constituency members plus additional members elected from party lists, and allocated as a corrective to any 'disproportionality' thrown up by the results of the individual contests.
Under the Convention's proposal, each elector will be entitled to cast two votes when it comes to electing a Scottish Parliament. The first is for electing a local Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) to represent an individual constituency. There will be 73 individual constituency MSPs, elected from constituencies corresponding to those used to elect members to the Westminster Parliament, with the exception that Orkney and Shetland will become two separate constituencies. These constituency MSPs will be elected by 'first past the post'.
The second vote is for a local list of additional members proposed by political parties, or by organisations and individuals coming together to contest the election. In the Scottish case, there will be a total of 56 additional members bringing the total number of MSPs to 129. Rather than have all 56 additional members elected from competing lists on a Scotland-wide basis, it has been agreed to have 7 elected from each of 8 regional constituencies. in order to minimise the proliferation of political units, the eight 'regional constituencies' will correspond to Scotland's European Parliamentary constituencies. The votes cast for each party list within each Euro seat will be counted and the seven additional MSPs will be allocated to ensure that the total representation from that area in a Scottish Parliament - including the members elected for individual constituencies - corresponds as closely as possible to the share of the vote cast for each party in the area.
Although no decision has been take on the design of the ballot paper to be used for Scottish Parliament elections, reproduced below is a direct Scottish translation of the ballot paper used in Germany's AMS system. It is almost insulting to suggest, as the opponents of fair elections have done, that the average Scot will be confused by such a ballot paper resulting in huge numbers of spoilt papers. Electors put an 'X' next to the person they want to represent their local constituency, and another next to the name of the party list they support. (Apologies for the names used in the example. They are intended to be purely illustrative.)
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Remaining confusion as to how AMS works can best be dealt with by looking at examples as to how it would work in practice. For the basis of this exercise we are using the results of the 1992 General Election, taking the results in each individual constituency and aggregating each party's share of the vote in each Euro seat area.
Political developments have moved on since then (Web Editor's
Note: They certainly have!), and there is also a powerful
argument that the changed voting system could have an impact on voting
patterns, so the following examples are merely illustrations of how the
system works rather than predictions for the first set of elections to
a Scottish Parliament.
This Euro region comprises 9 individual constituencies (6 in Edinburgh, the two West Lothian seats and Midlothan) plus the 7 additional members to be elected from the lists, producing a total representation of 16 in the Scottish Parliament.
In 1992 Labour won 7 of the individual seats. Its total vote in the Euro region of 37.74% entitled it to a total of 7 of the 16 seats representing Lothians. Labour would therefore not have anyone elected from its list of additional candidates for the Lothians but would hold on to the seven elected in the individual constituencies.
The Conservatives won 2 of the individual constituencies but their overall vote of 27.30% entitles them to a total of 4 of the 16 available seats. The Conservatives would therefore have the top 2 people on their list of seven elected, bringing their total representation in Lothians up to 4.
The SNP failed to have anyone elected in an individual constituency, but their overall vote of almost 19% entitles them to three of the 16 available seats. Therefore the top 3 people on the SNP list of seven would be elected.
Like the SNP, the Liberal Democrats failed to have anyone elected in an individual constituency but their overall vote entitles them to 2 of the 16 seats available. Therefore the top 2 people on the Liberal Democrat list would be elected.
The total result for the 16 seats representing Lothians
would then be:
| Labour | 7 MSPs | all elected in individual constituencies |
| Conservative | 4 MSPs | 2 in individual constituencies |
| SNP | 3 MSPs | all from the list |
| Lib Dem | 2 MSPs | both elected from the list |
This geographically huge Euro region includes 8 individual constituencies (counting Shetland and Orkney and two constituencies) plus seven additional members to be elected from party lists, producing a total representation of 15 from the Highlands and Islands in a Scottish Parliament.
Labour wins just one individual constituency (Western Isles), but its overall vote of more than 19%, almost one fifth, entitles it to a total of 3 of the available 15 seats. The top 2 people on Labour's list of seven additional members would therefore be elected.
Liberal Democrat candidates win 6 individual constituency seats (we are assuming for the purposes of this illustration that the Liberal Democrats would win both the Shetland and Orkney constituencies) while their overall share of the vote of just 28.21% entitles them to barely four of the 15 available seats. The Lib Dems would have no one elected from their list but would hold on to their 6 individual constituency seats.
There are now 5 additional seats still available in the Highlands and Islands for allocation between the SNP and the Conservatives. The SNP won 1 individual constituency but, with more than a quarter of the vote, they have a claim on a total of 4 seats, i.e. 3 additional members. Meanwhile the Conservatives, who returned no individual constituency members, also polled more than a quarter, and therefore have a claim on four seats in total, all of them additional members. It would therefore require an available 7 additional members to give the SNP and the Tories their fair share, but there are only 5 available, the result of the disproportional advantage secured by the Lib Dems in the individual constituencies where they won 75% of the seats on less than 30% of the vote. The election in the Highlands and Islands would be concluded by allocating 2 of the remaining 5 additional seats to the SNP, bringing their total up to 3, and allocating the remaining 3 additional seats to the Tories. This would be a fair result, given the closeness of the SNP and Conservative total vote in the area.
The overall result in the Highlands and Islands area
would then be:
| Labour | 3 MSPs | 1 individual constituency, 2 additional members |
| Conservative | 3 MSPs | all additional members |
| SNP | 3 MSPs | 1 individual constituency, 2 additional members |
| Lib Dem | 6 MSPs | all individual constituencies |
Examples could be given for all 8 Euro seat regions in Scotland but, for the curious, let's cut straight to the all-Scotland picture:
| Labour | 54 MSPs | 49 individual constituencies, 5 additional members |
| Conservative | 30 MSPs | 11 individual constituencies, 19 additional members |
| SNP | 26 MSPs | 3 individual constituency, 23 additional members |
| Lib Dem | 18 MSPs | 10 individual constituencies, 8 additional members |
| Others | 1 MSPs | An additional member seat won in the Glasgow Euro region by Scottish Militant Labour |
:All of the above projections were done from the results of the 1992 election. More recent figures, prepared by the Scottish Liberal Democrats, and published in The Scotsman on July 23, 1997 show the following projected results based on the 1997 general election:
| Labour | 63 MSPs | 56 individual constituencies, 7 additional members |
| Conservative | 22 MSPs | 0 individual constituencies, 22 additional members |
| SNP | 28 MSPs | 6 individual constituency, 22 additional members |
| Lib Dem | 15 MSPs | 10 individual constituencies, 5 additional members |
[Source: Scottish Liberal Democrats, quoted by Peter MacMahon in The Scotsman, July 23, 1997]
The main attack on the system, by those opposed to a Scottish Parliament and fair elections, is that the Additional Members, those elected from the regional lists, are not real representatives but party hacks selected by "central committees".
One of the main reasons for opting for regional lists, as opposed to one Scottish-wide list, is to allow the local members of political parties to select the people that comprise their list in that region. Additional members also have an important regional representative role to fulfil. The two Labour Additional Members elected in the Highlands and Islands would have a job to do in representing the interests of their supporters in that area, just as the solitary Liberal Democrat Additional Member in Strathclyde West has to represent the interests of his/her electors.
The list element also provides an opportunity for parties to introduce people who do not fall into the mould of a local constituency representative. In Germany the lists have been used to elect 'experts' on various topics, and it would be open to parties in Scotland to do the same. Additional members Systems are being used to elect parliaments in an increasing number of countries throughout the globe. In many of these countries it is the most senior politicians who seek election via the list. An excellent example of this is the former Social Democratic West Chancellor, Schmidt, who sat in the West German Parliament as an Additional Member.
The system agreed by the Convention offers Scotland a fair electoral
system combined with local selection and election of Additional Members.
It offers representation for all party viewpoints in every Euro region,
and can be used to encourage the participation of people with talent and
experience, who are not necessarily conventional politicians, to make a
real contribution to building their country.
The Scottish Constitutional Convention has accepted the principle of positive action to ensure that Scottish women play an equal role in determining their country's future. It has called on Scotland's political parties to adopt selection procedures that will ensure that half of their contingents in the first Scottish Parliament will be women. Labour and the Liberal Democrats have signed an agreement to that effect. If voluntary undertakings by parties fail to close the gender gap in Scottish public life then the Convention recommends that the Scottish Parliament reviews the situation with a view to determining what other measures could be introduced to achieve the desired goal.
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