“In Australia, the practice of voting by preference tends to promote the rapprochement of points of view and the stability of the regime” | EUROtoday

Sf the disaster of our consultant system has been aggravated, in France, by the dissolution of the National Assembly, all parliamentary democracies are in the present day affected by a rising polarization of the political debate and an erosion of the so-called “governing” events. “. In the long term, an entire model is under threat.

From this point of view, we could draw inspiration from the Australian example. In response to the fear of isolation and fragmentation of the communitywhich permeates Australian identity, there is in fact, in their electoral practice, the constant concern to promote the rapprochement of points of view and the stability of the parliamentary system. Voting therefore has two major characteristics: it is compulsory, and it is organized by a “preference system” (preferential voting), that is to say that we ask the voter to express themselves on the entire political offer present in each election.

In the House of Representatives (where elections are held by majority vote) and in the Senate (where the vote is proportional), the electoral law thus obliges the voter to note all the candidates or all the parties, failing which his ballot is invalid. The voter indicates their first choice (primary vote or “primary vote”) then his preferences, in descending order, for the other candidates or parties.

For results in the House of Representatives, primary votes are counted first. If no candidate obtains an absolute majority, the last candidate is eliminated and the preferences attached to his votes are distributed to the remaining candidates. We continue in this way until one of the candidates obtains an absolute majority.

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In the Senate, the quota necessary to be elected is determined according to a calculation taking into account the total number of votes and the number of seats to be filled. If a candidate receives a number of votes greater than the quota, he is elected and his excess votes are redistributed. If none is elected thanks to primary voteswe eliminate the candidates having obtained the lowest scores and we distribute their preferences, until the quota is obtained.

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