Despite common principles, there are major differences in the electoral systems of the EU member states. Although the European Electoral Law lays down common principles, each Member State retains a great deal of leeway when organising elections. This leads to a variety of electoral systems.
Different voting procedures are used in Europe: from closed lists with a fixed order to combinations of list votes and preference votes or personal votes for individual candidates. In addition, there are eight different methods for allocating seats in parliament to political parties in proportion to the election results.
The way in which preference votes are used to allocate a party's seats to specific candidates also differs considerably. In this analysis, Friedrich Pukelsheim follows the entire election process and documents how the 720 members of the European Parliament were elected. He also describes their affiliation with the political groups with which the Parliament began its tenth legislative term.
Pukelsheim sheds light on the complex mechanisms behind the composition of the European Parliament and shows in detail how votes are converted into political representation in the EU context.
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