The Block Vote is simply the use of First Past the Post (FPTP) (see First Past the Post (FPTP)) voting in multi-member districts. Each elector is given as many votes as there are seats to be filled, and they are usually free to vote for individual candidates regardless of party affiliation. In most Block Vote systems they may use as many, or as few, votes as they wish. As of September 1997, the Palestinian Authority, Bermuda, Fiji, Laos, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Thailand, the Maldives, Kuwait, the Philippines and Mauritius all use Block Vote electoral systems. The system was also used in Jordan in 1989 (see Jordan - Electoral System Design in the Arab World) and in Mongolia in 1992, but was changed in both countries as a result of unease with the results it produced. A few seats in the British House of Commons, in particular the University seats, were elected by the Block Vote up until 1945.
Party Block Vote (PB)
For the election of a number of their Members of Parliament (MPs)(all in the cases of Djibouti and Lebanon, and almost all in the cases of Singapore, Tunisia, and Senegal), five countries use an electoral system which falls somewhere between FPTP and the Block Vote as described above. We shall refer to this as the Party Block Vote. As in FPTP, voters usually have a single vote, but unlike FPTP, there are multi-member districts and voters choose between party lists of candidates rather than individuals. The party winning most votes takes all the seats in the district, and its entire list of candidates is duly elected. As in FPTP, there is no requirement to win an absolute majority of the votes.
In some countries, the PB is used to ensure balanced ethnic representation, as it enables parties to present ethnically diverse lists of candidates for election. In Lebanon, for example, each party list must be comprised of a mix of candidates from different ethnic groups. In Singapore, there is a range of single-member and multi-member districts. While MPs for the single-member seats are elected by FPTP, most MPs are elected from multi-member districts known as Group Representation Constituencies, which each return between three and six members from a single list of party or individual candidates. Of the candidates on each party or group list, at least one must be a member of the Malay, Indian, or some other minority community. Voters choose between these various lists of candidates with a single vote. While each elector votes only once, in most districts they are effectively choosing all members with one vote. Singapore also uses 'best loser' seats for opposition candidates in some circumstances--as does Ecuador where, if the party which takes second-place wins half the votes of the first party, it is rewarded with a seat (see Ecuador: The Search for Democratic Governance).
