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Double simultaneous vote (DSV) is an electoral system in which multiple offices – such as the president and members of a legislature – are elected through a single vote cast for a party. It can be combined with other electoral systems; in Uruguay DSV is used to elect the president and members of the Senate and Chamber of Representatives, with the presidential election also using the two-round system; if no party/presidential candidate receives a majority of the vote, a second round is held for the presidential election. [1]

The initial republican constitutions of several countries in the Commonwealth of Nations, such as Kenya, [2] Guyana [3] and Zambia, [4] provided for presidential elections by double simultaneous vote. Occasionally, as in Tanganyika, [5] [6] a variant was used whereby the candidate who won a majority of constituencies (as opposed to a plurality of votes) would be elected.

Some Latin American countries used a DSV variant known as Ley de Lemas, in which parties may have sub-groups (sub-lemas) whose votes count towards the party's overall total.

Use

Country First election Second election Third election Simultaneous votes
Offices System Offices System Offices System
Angola Members of the National Assembly Party-list PR President FPTP Closed list party vote + personal vote
Botswana Members of the National Assembly FPTP President Constituency unit system [a] Personal vote + personal vote
Bolivia President (first round) TRS Chamber of Deputies AMS Senate Party-list PR Personal vote + mixed single vote + closed list party vote
Guyana Members of the National Assembly Party-list PR President FPTP Closed list party vote + personal vote
Uruguay President TRS Chamber of Representatives Party-list PR Chamber of Senators Party-list PR Personal vote + 2x closed list party vote

Notes

  1. ^ Each constituency in the parliamentary election has as one unit vote, awarded to the presidential candidate who is supported by the elected MP for the consttiuency. Parliamentary candidates can declare that they do not support any presidential candidate, in which case the unit vote would not be awarded to any presidential candidate. A majority of unit votes is required for election, and if this is not obtained, the National Assembly elects the president.

References

  1. ^ Uruguay Election Passport
  2. ^ THE CONSTITUTION OF KENYA ACT 1969, Section 9 – "in every constituency in which a poll is required to be taken[...]the ballot paper shall be in such form as to pair each candidate for President who is nominated by a particular political party with the candidate (if any) for the National Assembly who is nominated by that political party, and so as to permit the voter to cast one vote for one of the pairs (which shall be taken to be a vote for each member of the pair who is a candidate in a contested election);"
  3. ^ "LAWS OF GUYANA" (PDF). parliament.gov.gy. 2012. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  4. ^ Zambia 1968
  5. ^ An Act to Declare the Constitution of Tanganyika, Section 4
  6. ^ The Republican Constitution of Tanganyika