The unrepresented voters are considered the total amount of voters not represented by any party sitting in the legislature in the case of
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
. In contrast, the related concept of
wasted vote In electoral systems, a wasted vote is any vote which is not for an elected candidate or, more broadly, a vote that does not help to elect a candidate. The narrower meaning includes ''lost votes'', being only those votes which are for a losing candi ...
s
[ generally applies to ]plurality voting
Plurality voting refers to electoral systems in which a candidate, or candidates, who poll more than any other counterpart (that is, receive a plurality), are elected. In systems based on single-member districts, it elects just one member per ...
, which generally has a higher percentage of wasted votes. The unrepresented voters are calculated as: where is the vote share of unrepresented party and is the overall number of unrepresented parties. The unrepresented voters can be given as a percentage of the total amount of votes or as the absolute number of votes. The unrepresented voters increases with a higher electoral threshold
The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...
, one of the ways to reduce political fragmentation Political fragmentation is the fragmentation of the political landscape into different parties and groups, which makes it difficult to deliver effective governance. Political fragmentation can apply to political parties, political groups or other po ...
. Even with no explicit electoral threshold, the natural electoral threshold applies.
On occasion, unrepresented voters have resulted in a party winning an outright majority of seats without winning an outright majority of votes, the sort of outcome that a proportional voting system is supposed to prevent. For instance, in the 2002 Turkish general election
General elections were held in Turkey on 3 November 2002 following the collapse of the Democratic Left Party–Nationalist Movement Party– Motherland Party coalition led by Bülent Ecevit. All 550 members of the Grand National Assembly were ...
the party AKP won more than two-thirds of the seats in the Parliament with just 34.28% of the vote. In the 2013 Bavarian federal state election in Germany, the party CSU
CSU may refer to:
* Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card
* Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code
* Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation
* Christian Social Un ...
failed to obtain a majority of votes but won an outright majority of seats.
Change of unrepresented voters over time
Unrepresented voters changes from one election to another depending on voter behavior and size of effective electoral threshold, here shown for New Zealand. In New Zealand in 2005 every party above 1% got seats due to the electoral threshold in New Zealand of at least one seat in first-past-the-post voting, which caused a much lower unrepresented voters compared to the other years.
Examples of high unrepresented voters
In Poland, in 1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...
the unrepresented voters reached 34.4%. In the Russian parliamentary elections in 1995 more than 45% of votes went unrepresented. In the 2002 Turkish general election
General elections were held in Turkey on 3 November 2002 following the collapse of the Democratic Left Party–Nationalist Movement Party– Motherland Party coalition led by Bülent Ecevit. All 550 members of the Grand National Assembly were ...
as many as 46.33% (14,545,438) of votes were cast for parties that were unrepresented in the parliament. In the Ukrainian elections of March 2006, 22% of voters were effectively disenfranchised
Disfranchisement, also called disenfranchisement, or voter disqualification is the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing a person exercising the right to vote. D ...
. In the 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election
Early parliamentary elections in Ukraine took place on 30 September 2007. The date of the election was determined following agreement between the President Viktor Yushchenko, the Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and the Chairman of the Verkhovna ...
held under the same system, fewer voters supported minor parties and the total percentage of disenfranchised voters fell to about 12%. In Bulgaria, 24% of voters cast their ballots for parties that would not gain representation in the elections of 1991
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...
and 2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
. In Germany in 2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
15.7% or 6.9 million votes were unrepresented. In New Zealand, the unrepresented vote was 4.62% in 2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
and in 2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
it was 7.71%. During Danish general elections on Faroe Islands the unrepresented vote reached 51.3% in 2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
and 46.2% in 2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
, while on Greenland in 2015 21.96% and in 2019 34.2% of voters were not represented in the Parliament of Denmark
The Folketing ( da, Folketinget, ; ), also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral List of legislatures by country, national legislature (parliament) of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark—De ...
. In 2019 European Parliament election in France
The 2019 European Parliament election in France were held on 26 May 2019 (and on 25 May in parts of overseas France and for some nationals abroad), electing members of the 9th French delegation to the European Parliament as part of the elections h ...
19.79% of voters were unrepresented. In the 2020 Slovak parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in Slovakia on 29 February 2020 to elect all 150 members of the National Council.
The anti-corruption list led by Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) movement emerged as the largest parliame ...
, 28.39% of all valid votes did not gain representation. In the 2021 Czech legislative election
Legislative elections were held in the Czech Republic on 8 and 9 October 2021. All 200 members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected, with the leader of the resulting government to become the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. Following th ...
, 19.76 percent of voters were not represented. In the 2022 Slovenian parliamentary election, 24% of the vote went to parties that did not reach the electoral threshold. In German federal state Saarland 2022 election the total unrepresented voters was 22.3%. In 2015 Israeli legislative election
Early elections for the twentieth Knesset were held in Israel on 17 March 2015. Disagreements within the governing coalition, particularly over the budget and a "Jewish state" proposal, led to the dissolution of the government in December 2 ...
the unrepresented vote was 7.1% In 2022 Latvian parliamentary election unrepresented voters reached 29%.
Examples of low unrepresented voters
In 2015 Danish general election
General elections were held in the Kingdom of Denmark
The Danish Realm ( da, Danmarks Rige; fo, Danmarkar Ríki; kl, Danmarkip Naalagaaffik), officially the Kingdom of Denmark (; ; ), is a sovereign state located in Northern Europe and Nor ...
the unrepresented vote calculated by the formula above in Denmark proper was 0.92%. In 2018 Swedish general election
General elections were held in Sweden on 9 September 2018 to elect the 349 members of the Riksdag. Regional and municipal elections were also held on the same day. The incumbent minority government, consisting of the Social Democrats and the Gre ...
the unrepresented vote was 1.5%. In Netherlands the unrepresented vote was 1.55% in 2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
and 1.99% in 2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
. The low percentage in Netherlands is caused by a low explicit electoral threshold of 0.67%. In 2005 New Zealand general election
5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on eac ...
the unrepresented vote was 1.5%. The 2019 Swiss federal election
Federal elections were held in Switzerland on 20 October 2019 to elect all members of both houses of the Federal Assembly. This was followed by the 2019 election to the Swiss Federal Council, the federal executive, by the United Federal Assemb ...
had unrepresented voters of 1.3%, caused by natural electoral thresholds.
Legal status
The German Federal Constitutional Court
The Federal Constitutional Court (german: link=no, Bundesverfassungsgericht ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme constitutional court for the Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law () of Germany. Since its inc ...
rejected an electoral threshold for the European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
in 2011 and in 2014 based on the principle of one person, one vote
"One man, one vote", or "one person, one vote", expresses the principle that individuals should have equal representation in voting. This slogan is used by advocates of political equality to refer to such electoral reforms as universal suffrage, ...
.
In the case of Turkey, in 2004 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe declared this threshold to be manifestly excessive and asked Turkey to lower it (''Council of Europe Resolution 1380 (2004)''). On 30 January 2007 the European Court of Human Rights ruled by five votes to two and on 8 July 2008, its Grand Chamber by 13 votes to four that the 10% threshold imposed in Turkey does not violate the right to free elections, guaranteed by the European Convention of Human Rights. It held, however, that this same threshold could violate the Convention if imposed in a different country. It was justified in the case of Turkey in order to stabilize the volatile political situation over recent decades.Negating Pluralist Democracy: The European Court of Human Rights Forgets the Rights of the Electors
KHRP Legal Review 11 (2007)
See also
*
Wasted vote In electoral systems, a wasted vote is any vote which is not for an elected candidate or, more broadly, a vote that does not help to elect a candidate. The narrower meaning includes ''lost votes'', being only those votes which are for a losing candi ...
*
Measuring disproportionality
*
Loosemore–Hanby index The Loosemore–Hanby index measures disproportionality of electoral systems, how much the principle of one person, one vote is violated. It computes the absolute difference between votes cast and seats obtained using the formula:
:LH=\frac\sum_^n ...
*
Gallagher index
*
No taxation without representation
"No taxation without representation" is a political slogan that originated in the American Revolution, and which expressed one of the primary grievances of the American colonists for Great Britain. In short, many colonists believed that as they ...
*
Natural electoral threshold
References
{{reflist
Electoral systems
Psephology