Quote:
Originally Posted by OLD BOY
Well, if Salmond did form a new party, he would split the independence voters and that would be interesting.
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Holyrood is elected by the D’Hondt system, which uses regional party lists to add MSPs to those elected in constituencies, in order to make the composition of the chamber proportional to the vote. It isn’t perfect, but it seriously reduces the incidence of perverse outcomes such as the one you might have in mind. In this system, evenly splitting the independence vote between parties run by Salmond and Sturgeon would result (in theory at least) in them getting 30 seats each rather than Sturgeon’s SNP getting all 60. It’s not quite that simple because there are other parties also in the contest and because it isn’t possible to be perfectly proportional with only around 120 seats to be won. The combined independence seats could be slightly higher, or they could be slightly lower.