Proportional Representation: A Study in Methods of Election Part 42

In the event of equality of votes, the returning officer shall at once decide the matter by casting lots.

13. If one or more lists have been nominated, the vacancies on the Grand Council shall be divided among the several lists in proportion to the number of votes each list has received. The procedure shall be as follows:--

The total number of the valid votes shall be divided by the number of vacancies increased by one.

The quotient thus obtained increased by one (but disregarding fractions) shall be called the quota.

To each list there shall be allotted as many members as the number of times the quota is contained in the votes it receives. If the total number of members thus obtained is less than the number to be elected, the votes for each list shall be divided by one more than the number of members already a.s.signed to such list, and the first seat still to be disposed of shall be allotted to that list which has the largest quotient.

The same procedure shall be repeated as long as any seats remain to be disposed of.

If two or more lists have the same claim to the last seat to be disposed of (equality of quotient), that list shall always take precedence in which the candidate who would be selected under the provisions of Clause 14 has received the largest number of votes. In case of equality of votes the returning officer (_Wahl-bureau_) shall immediately decide the question by casting lots.

14. From each list those candidates (to the number allotted to the list) shall be selected who have received the largest number of votes.

Equality of votes is decided by lot, to be drawn immediately by the returning officer.

15. If to one or several lists are allotted more seats than there are names contained, all their candidates shall in the first place stand elected. The surplus seats shall be divided among the remaining lists by continuance of the procedure prescribed in Clause 13.

16. After ascertaining the result of the election, the electoral office shall draw up a report stating the number of the voting vouchers received, of the official stamps issued, and of the voting papers handed in, the number of the votes received for each name and for each list, arranged according to the lists, particulars of the allotment of seats and the names of the elected members.

Mention shall also be made of any irregularities which have occurred.

These reports shall be signed by all the electoral officers, and shall then be forwarded, together with the voting vouchers received, the unused official stamps, the voting papers and the unissued papers, to the Government Council.

The result of the election shall be affixed conspicuously outside the Chief Polling Booth.

The Polling Officers shall notify each elected candidate of his election in writing.

17. An elected candidate who did not appear on any of the nominations put in may refuse to accept his election within one week by giving written notice to the Government Council.

The Government Council shall then immediately order a bye-election.

18. Those elected candidates whose election is rendered void owing to their simultaneously having been elected as members of the Government Council shall be immediately replaced by the Government Council by the non-elected candidates on the same list who have received most votes.

If there are none, the vacant seats on the Great Council shall immediately be filled by supplementary elections, which shall also serve to fill any seats, if any rendered vacant under Clause 17.

19. Members retiring from the Great Council during their period of office shall be replaced immediately by the Government Council by the non-elected candidates on the same list who have received most votes.

If there are none, supplementary elections shall take place in the first half of the next following month of May.

20. The same regulations shall serve for supplementary elections as for general elections.

21. The provisions of this law shall come into operation for the first time in the general election for the Grand Council which takes place in the year 1905.

The provisions of earlier laws and resolutions of the Grand Council referring to elections to the Grand Council are hereby repealed, in so far as they are contrary to this law.