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VOTES TRANSFERS TO ACHIEVE A PROPORTIONATE RESULT
The Northern Ireland Assembly has 108 members - six each returned in the province's 18 parliamentary constituencies by the single transferable vote system.
This is used for council and European Parliament contests in the province and all elections in the Irish Republic.
From this year it is also the system for local elections in Scotland with each ward having three or four representatives.
The system aims to reduce the so-called "wasted-vote" phenomena under the UK Parliament's first-past-the post system.
Under FPP many electors in traditionally ‘safe' constituencies find either their chosen party never wins and their vote does not count towards electing anyone or it always wins, piling up majorities of thousands of votes more than is actually needed for victory.
Under STV, there are a number of Members for each constituency - six in the case of Northern Ireland.
The winning post is the quota - the number of valid votes cast divided by the number of seats plus one, in all of the Northern Ireland constituencies this is a seventh of the votes plus one. Any candidate passing this at any stage during the counting is elected.
Electors are asked to number candidates on the ballot paper in order of preference.
The system involves two distributions of votes through many counts:
:: Candidates passing the quota are declared elected and the number of their votes above the quota distributed to other candidates in accordance with their supporters' lower preferences
:: Low scoring candidates are progressively eliminated and their votes distributed to other candidates in accordance with their supporters' lower preferences.
The six seats will be filled by either candidates passing the quota or being the balance left when all others have been eliminated.
Example of a count of first preference votes in a six-member constituency:
George Frost (SDLP) 8,264
Henry Thomas (UUP) 5,694
David Morris (UUP) 5,196
John McIntosh (DUP) 5,148
Chris March (UUP) 4,354
Chris Mills (UUP) 4,187
Donald Games (UUP) 4,161
Fred Prefect (DUP) 2,112
Maurice Massey (Alliance) 1,958
Don Donaldson (SDLP) 1,861
Les Mayor (UDP) 1,854
Jeff Sims (Lab) 1,742
Pat Reilly (SF) 854
George Goole (UDP) 852
Bob Stuart (Alliance) 742
Fred James (Alliance) 675
Stan Scott (Lab) 571
Mrs Val Alison (PUP) 560
George Frost has polled more than the quota of 7,255 - a seventh of the 50,785 turnout and is declared elected.
His 1,009 surplus is redistributed to other candidates in accordance with the second choices of his supporters.
The second count result is:
Henry Thomas (UUP) 5,695
David Morris (UUP) 5,196
John McIntosh (DUP) 5,148
Chris March (UUP) 4,354
Chris Mills (UUP) 4,187
Donald Games (UUP) 4,161
Fred Prefect (DUP) 2,112
Maurice Massey (Alliance) 1,983
Don Donaldson (SDLP) 2,673
Les Mayor (UDP) 1,859
Jeff Sims (Lab) 1,802
Pat Reilly (SF) 898
George Goole (UDP) 852
Bob Stuart (Alliance) 761
Fred James (Alliance) 688
Stan Scott (Lab) 572
Mrs Val Alison (PUP) 560
Nobody new has passed the quota this time. The lowest scoring candidate Val Alison is now eliminated from the contest and her votes redistributed to other runners on the basis of lower preferences.
This process continues with candidates either passing the quota and being elected or being eliminated.
An example of a final - and in this case 15th count - where three candidates have already passed the quota:
David Morris (UUP) 7,273
Chris March (UUP) 6,058
Chris Mills (UUP) 6,521
Maurice Massey (Alliance) 6,146
Morris clears the quota and the lowest scoring candidate, Chris March, is eliminated. Massey and Mills take the remaining two seats although polling less than the quota.
If there are any queries, contact Chris Mead on 020 7963 7930 or through PA News main switchboard on 020 7963 7000 or PA Customer Services on
08701 202095.
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