The Tally Room

Following on from potential Labour leader Alan Johnson's call for the implementation of proportional representation in the House of Commons, Conservative leader David Cameron has proposed his own raft of reforms: Limit the power of the prime minister by giving serious consideration to introducing fixed-term...

Germany is the most populous country in the European Union, and thus elects 99 MEPs (both in 2004 and 2009). These 99 MEPs are elected from a single multi-member constituency covering the whole of Germany, with a 5% threshold. The 2004 election saw a massive...

France elects 72 MEPs at the 2009 European election, down from 78 in 2004. The French electorate is divided into eight constituencies, seven covering metropolitain France and an eighth covering voters in France's overseas departments. The 2004 election saw a recovery for the centre-right Union...

Spain will elect 54 MEPs in 2009, the same number it elected in the last election in 2004. All Spanish MEPs are elected as part of a single constituency using proportional representation. The 2004 election saw the centre-left Socialist Workers Party (Party of European Socialists)...

Guest post from our Benelux correspondent, Justin-Paul Sammons. One of the smallest and wealthiest nations in the EU, as well as one of its six founding nations, Luxembourg goes to the polls on Sunday 7 June to elect 6 MEPs, the same number as in 2004....

With the resurgence of interest in proportional representation in the UK, and calls for an electoral reform referendum at the 2010 general election, I tracked down and read the report of the Jenkins Commission, which proposed a PR system for the UK House of...

Simon blogs regularly at Polswatch - Ben Sweden joined the European Union in 1995, two years after its formal establishment with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. Sweden votes as a single constituency using a modified ‘Sainte-Laguë method of the highest average’ voting system. This...

Portugal has been a member of the European Union since 1987, when they first elected a delegation of MEPs. Portugal votes as a single constituency, with seats being distributed by party lists. They will elect 22 MEPs in 2009, after electing 24-25 at each...

There has been a lot of commentary on the Greens' victory in last weekend's Fremantle by-election result. First of all, it is clearly a significant result for the Greens. It is the first time the Greens have come first on primary votes in a...

Following the recent scandal in the UK, some senior figures in the Labour government have used the opportunity to push ahead with major democratic reforms: An intense cabinet-level debate is under way on the format of this initiative, its timescale and the range...