Denmark
Parliamentary Elections
Electoral system
- Unicameral parliament
- Name: Danish Parliament (Folketing)
- Members: 179
- Term: 4 years
- Constituencies: 10 multi-member constituencies corresponding to counties, subdivided into 92 nomination districts.
- Voting system: Proportional: 135 MPs are elected by proportional representation in the multimember constituencies utilizing the modified St. Lagüe method for translating votes to seats. The remaining 40 national-level, compensatory seats are distributed among the qualified parties according to a highly proportional electoral formula (the Hare quota, with remaining seats allocated on the basis of the largest reminder method) to increase overall vote-to-seat proportionality. To be eligible for compensatory seats, a party must either a) win a seat directly in any of the electoral districts, b) obtain a number of votes that correspond to the vote/seat ratio in two of the three electoral regions, or c) pass a 2 percent threshold of the valid, national vote. The Faeroe Islands and Greenland elect two MPs each according to separate rules.
- Voter requirements: 18 years of age; Danish citizenship; permanent residence in Denmark
- Voting is not compulsory.
Latest elections
Election results 1990-2011, main parties
Sources:
Stöver, Philip, and Andreas Wüst. 2005. Electoral Systems.
Inter-Parliamentary Union, PARLINE database on national parliaments
Constituency-Level Elections Archive (CLEA): country descriptions.
The Danish Parliament website on the Danish Electoral system
Bille, L. 2008. Denmark. European Journal of Political Research, Vol. 47 (7-8), 952-961.
Ministry of the Interior: Election results.
Statistics Denmark: Election results.
