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How Scotland’s Holyrood elections work will work this May

The 2024 General Election in Scotland was a one-sided affair. Scottish Labour won 35.3% of the vote in Scotland and 64.9% of the available seats. While the SNP came a narrow second place on 30%...

Posted 23 Apr 2026

Holyrood’s voting system wants you to be represented in Parliament

Scotland’s Parliament still has too much First Past the Post

When the Scottish Parliament was created, it was built to be different to Westminster. A system designed to reflect how all Scots voted, not just who comes first in each area. Scotland uses what is...

Posted 25 Mar 2026

We need to shift the balance closer to 50:50, to allow the ‘top-up’ to do its job.

Why Holyrood’s voting system still favours larger parties

Everyone knows that First Past the Post favours the largest party. At the last Westminster election, Labour managed to turn 34% of the vote into 63% of parliament – a full 29 percentage points more....

Posted 24 Feb 2026

Scotland should look again at how its parliament is elected

How Sainte-Laguë could improve Scottish Parliamentary elections

Scotland’s Parliament has always been better at representing the political makeup of Scotland than Westminster. A parliament where votes mattered more, where power was shared, and where the political map reflected how people actually voted....

Posted 28 Jan 2026

D’Hondt often over-rewards parties that have already done well

Is the Scottish Parliament designed to stop a majority?

As we approach the next Scottish parliamentary election, there’s a familiar narrative creeping into the conversation: that the system of proportional representation used in Holyrood is somehow ‘designed to stop a majority.’ It’s a catchy...

Posted 15 Oct 2025

Scotlands AMS system doesnt prevent parties from winning if they genuinely earn it

A Scottish House of Citizens would be the opposite of Westminster’s institutionally corrupt Lords

ERS Scotland and the Sortition Foundation have ramped up calls for ‘House of Citizens’ – a revising chamber made up of ordinary voters – in Scotland, following revelations that a Conservative party donor gave the...

Posted 03 Jun 2021

A Scottish House of Citizens would stand in proud contrast to the House of Lords

How May’s elections for the Scottish Parliament will work

Among the wave of elections that will be held on 6 May, voters across Scotland will be called to elect 129 members of the devolved Scottish Parliament for the sixth time in its history. The...

Posted 19 Apr 2021

When Scottish voters go to the polls they go knowing their vote will count

Are the SNP about to break the Holyrood voting system (again)?

This article was co-authored by ERS Scotland’s Juliet Swann and Danny Zinkus Sutton from Unlock Democracy Pollsters are perhaps not to be relied upon after their predictions for the General Election earlier in the year. Yet,...

Posted 24 Aug 2015