First Past The Post

Electoral system where the candidate with the largest block of votes automatically wins. Fair if there are only two candidates, but with more than two usually results in a situation where more people voted against the winner than for. Over many seats, results such as the UK Labour party's 1997 victory can happen: 170 seat majority in a ~650 seat house but under 45% of the popular vote.

Some systems get around this by having a run-off between the top two picks. The failure to do so when it appeared that the incumbent lacked the majority has led to the current upheavals in Peru.

CategoryVoting