Under list systems, political parties produce lists of nominated candidates. These lists may be produced at the national level, or more usually at the regional level. Each region elects a group of MPs - for example, in the UK we could have 65 areas each electing 10 MPs (currently 650 areas each elect one MP). In the new system introduced for the Welsh Senedd election in 2026 there are 16 constituencies each electing 6 MPs.
Voting takes place in one of three ways:
Under a closed list system, voters simply cast their vote for a party. If a party wins, say, three seats, then the top three candidates on its list are elected.
Under an open list system, the parties still publish lists of candidates, but voters are able to vote for the candidates they prefer, rather than simply voting for their party of choice. Under an open list system, if a party has enough support to win three seats, it is the three candidates of that party with the most personal votes who are elected.
Under a semi-open list system voters are presented with a ballot with the option to vote for a party or a candidate on a party list. Unlike open lists, voting for a party is taken as an endorsement of the order of candidates chosen by the party but with sufficient individual votes, candidates can move up the ordering. Different methods are used to determine what ‘sufficient’ means.
Where is this system used? List systems of different kinds are used in more than 80 countries and most European countries for the European Parliamentary Elections (including UK prior to Brexit).
Closed lists are used by 43 countries including Israel, South Africa ,Welsh Senedd (from 2026), Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Rwanda,Turkey
Open lists are used in 40 countries including Luxembourg, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Brazil, Poland, Peru, Greece, Finland, DRC, Croatia
Semi-open lists are used by Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Rep, Denmark, Lithuania, Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden
Allocation of seats: A formula is used to convert parties’ shares of the votes into seats.The three main counting methods are D’Hondt (Scottish & Welsh regional seats), which slightly favours larger parties and the Sainte-Laguë method (Germany, New Zealand, Sweden) which is more proportional and the Quota systems (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Italy, Greece, Netherlands)
List systems are often used with large electoral regions, thereby getting close to full proportionality. Larger electoral regions, however, result in a lower degree of local representation, while smaller electoral regions provide less proportionality but more local representation.
Denmark has adapted their system to balance out loss of proportionality caused by having regions: 135 MPs are elected from ten multi-member constituencies on a party list PR system using the d'Hondt method and the remaining 40 seats are allocated as leveling seats to ensure proportionality at a national level. South Africa and Sweden also use multi-level list systems.
> More resources on List Systems
> Electoral Reform Society explanation
> Electoral Commission Closed List Wales video
> Flexible Luxembourg Open List video
