That means there is an 18% gap between the proportion of votes won and the
share of parliamentary seats given.Lithuania came second in our study,
while Poland, Greece and Latvia also had gaps of more than 10%.
The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Malta had the closest alignment in
the bloc between share of votes and seats.Most of the EU uses a version
of proportional representation (PR), which awards seats according to
what proportion of the vote each party won. However, critics point out
that the system often results in coalitions which can cause delays and
undermine the ability of the government to act decisively.
France and the UK use variations of the first-past-the-post system (FPTP),
which splits the country into electoral regions, awarding a
parliamentary position to the party with the most votes and nothing to
the runners up. In France the election is run over two rounds to ensure
that the eventual winner of each seat has the support of at least half
of voters.
Each country's election outcome was measured by looking at the deviation from proportionality. The two countries among
our sample with the greatest divide between popular vote and ultimate
outcome — Hungary and Lithuania — both have a mixture of PR and FPTP
Orban and his Fidesz party introduced this hybrid system in a reform ahead of Hungary's previous election in 2014.
The changes included reducing the number of parliamentary seats from 386 to
199, which experts say has widened the gap between the ruling party and
the opposition.While hurtling 32,000 feet over Philadelphia, one of the
Boeing’s twin engines exploded, releasing shrapnel that peppered the
fuselage and shattered Riordan’s window. The damage caused the plane’s
cabin, where 144 passengers were seated, to depressurise and the jet to
became unstable.
"The plane dropped immediately," said Matt Tranchin, who was on the flight. "[The] plane smelled like smoke. Ash
was all around us.
