Two-Round System

Question 1

What is the two-round system? (TRS)

Answer 1

There isn’t one election, but two.

The first round is conducted in the same way as first past the post

if a candidate wings an absolute majority in the first round then there is no need for a second round

how the second round is conducted may vary from state to state, but the most common method is a straight run off where the person who has the highest votes wins end of

Question 2

How is this used in France?

Answer 2

A variant of this procedure is used for legislatibe election in France.

any candidate who has recieved the most votes of over 12.5% of the registered electorate in the 1st round can stand for 2nd round

whoever wins the second round with the most votes wins

Question 3

What is the threshold of the first round?

Answer 3

12.5%

Question 4

What are the advantages?

Answer 4

Allows voters to have a second choice for their chosen candidate or to change their mind between rounds.

Encourages diverse interests to come together behind the successful candidate from the first round, thus encouraging bargains and trade offs between parties and candidates.

TRS encourages the parties and the electorate to react to changes in the political landscape that occur between the first and second rounds of voting.

TRS lessens the problems of “vote splitting”, a common situation under FPTP where two similiar parties split their combined seats/votes between them thus enabling a less popular candidate to win a seat.

Electors do not have to express their second preference, TRS may be suited to countries with widespread illiteracy rather than systems which use preferential numbering like AV/STV/