Dunfermline East Conservative Association

The system for elections to the European Parliament is like that for the Scottish Parliament but without the First Past the Post seats.

Each voter can cast just one vote, for a party (there can be independent candidates but we'll keep it simple here). Scotland is a region for European elections so all Scottish votes are lumped together.

The best way to understand this is to see it in practice.

The next elections to the European Parliament are due in 2009.

Scottish Conservative MEPs

Currently there are two Conservative MEPs representing Scotland, John Purvis and Struan Stevenson.

2004 European Parliamentary Election Results for Scotland

The system works by successively allocating each seat to the party that has the highest ratio of total votes to seats won so far (in reality the number of votes is divided by the number of seats plus one but we'll refer to the ratio as votes/seat). After an extra seat is assigned, the ratio of votes/seat for the party receiving it naturally reduces. The allocation process is then repeated until all seven seats have been handed out.

For simplicity, we'll omit the smaller parties. At each stage, the figure in yellow shows which party won the additional seat.

Party	Cons	Lab	LDs	SNP	Green
Total vote	209,028	310,865	154,178	231,505	79,695
Votes/seat (1)	209,028	155,432	154,178	231,505	79,695
Votes/seat (2)	209,028	155,432	154,178	115,752	79,695
Votes/seat (3)	104,514	155,432	154,178	115,752	79,695
Votes/seat (4)	104,514	103,622	154,178	115,752	79,695
Votes/seat (5)	104,514	103,622	77,089	115,752	79,695
Votes/seat (6)	104,514	103,622	96,971	77,168	79,695
Total Seats	2	2	1	2	0

 

1999 European Parliamentary Election Results for Scotland

The 1999 election was conducted using the same system but with 8 seats allocated to Scotland rather than the 7 seats of 2003.

Party	Cons	Lab	LDs	SNP	Green
Total vote	195,296	283,490	96,971	268,528	57,142
Votes/seat (1)	195,296	141,745	96,971	268,528	57,142
Votes/seat (2)	195,296	141,745	96,971	134,264	57,142
Votes/seat (3)	97,648	141,745	96,971	134,264	57,142
Votes/seat (4)	97,648	94,497	96,971	134,264	57,142
Votes/seat (5)	97,648	94,497	96,971	89,509	57,142
Votes/seat (6)	65,099	94,497	96,971	89,509	57,142
Votes/seat (7)	65,099	94,497	48,486	89,509	57,142
Total Seats	2	3	1	2	0