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INTERVIEW
monitoring of the elections, containing win 60 MPs, which is much more equita-
recommendations regarding all stages of ble distribution than in the first case.
the election process. Some of the observa-
tions, conclusions and recommendations Step further is the issue of a model
are based on these reports, prepared in with closed and a model with open lists?
the past 13 years, as well as on the pre- What would the voting look like in case of
vious experience related to the improve- a proportional election system with open
ment of the election process. Of course, lists?
we also consulted the international elec-
tion standards and comparative experi- D. Aleksov: According to the variant of
ences. open lists, proposed by MOST (because
even within the open lists there are more
Let us focus on those parts of your sub-variants) a table with ordinal num-
recommendations that caused the great- bers from 1 to 20 would be added on the
est public interest. First, what is your ballot, to be used for voting on candidates,
position on the election system, do you or so-called preferential voting.Voters
prefer a majoritarian or a proportional would first vote for the candidate list as
system? What are their strengths and a whole, as before, then they would circle
weaknesses? What do international expe- one or several ordinal numbers in the ta-
riences show? ble, whereby they would vote for a certain
number of candidates from that list. The
In the election theory D. Aleksov: In the election theory it has number of preferential votes in the coun-
it has long been long been established that there is no per- tries with open lists commonly ranges
fect election model, nor that any election from 1 to 5.
established that there model is better or worse than any other.
is no perfect election It depends on the goals you set and the What are the international experi-
conditions in which the model is applied. ences in terms of open lists in the propor-
model, nor that any In countries with heterogeneous ethnic tional election systems?
election model is better composition of the population, such as
Macedonia, it is recommended to use the D. Aleksov: Experiences show that an
or worse than any proportional model, because it provides increasing number of countries with a
other. It depends on the mirroring of the society in the political proportional election system opt for in-
system, i.e. it provides the highest level of troducing open lists, which are most com-
goals you set and the representation of the various elements in mon in the European countries and the
conditions in which the the society. The proportional model has EU Member States. Of the 20 EU Member
another advantage over the majoritarian States with a proportional electoral sys-
model is applied model because it produces fewer so-called tem, 18 use some form of open lists. Last
„lost votes“. For instance, let us assume countries that moved from closed to open
that we have a majoritarian model with lists are Croatia and Italy.
only 2 parties. Macedonia would be divid-
ed into 120 electoral districts in each one What would be the benefits of intro-
of which oneMP will be elected and if in ducing open lists?
all those electoral districts party A wins
with only one vote more than party B, it D. Aleksov: Taking into account the
will mean that it will win all 120 seats, al- views of the two major political parties
though it would win only 120 votes more regarding the election system, it should
than the other party (1 vote more in each be pointed out that open lists combine the
electoral district). If in the same example benefits of both the majoritarian and the
the elections are conducted according to proportional election systems. Namely,
the current proportional model with 6 voters can vote for candidates (as in the
electoral districts, the 120-vote difference majoritarian system), but the number of
(20 votes in each electoral district) will MP seats the party will win depends on the
not mean anything, i.e. each party would percentage of votes it won (characteristics
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