Parallel voting

Parallel voting describes a mixed voting system where voters in effect participate in two seperate elections using different systems, and where the results in one election have little or no impact on the results of the other. If one of the two election counts does have a substantial impact on the result of the other then mixed member proportional voting may be a better description.

Typically, one of the elections is by first-past-the-post, runoff voting or bloc voting, while the other election uses some form of proportional representation.

One of the justifications is often to ensure an element of district representation, while enabling minorities to have some element of representation even if it is not strictly proportional. This lack of overall proportionality means that parallel voting is more likely to produce a decisive result than mixed member proportional voting.

It has been used in many countries, including Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Cameroon, Croatia, Georgia, Guatemala, Guinea, Japan, South Korea, Lithuania, Niger, Russia, Senegal, the Seychelles, Somalia, and Tunisia.