D'Hondt method
Also called: Highest averages method · Topic: Elections and the Electoral System · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The D'Hondt method is a formula for turning votes into seats under list proportional representation. In list PR, voters choose a party, and the party fills its seats from a list of names it has declared. Under D'Hondt, each party's votes are divided by 1, then 2, then 3, and so on. Seats go one by one to the largest results until every seat is filled. It is called a highest averages method, and it gives slightly more seats to bigger parties.
Example
Israel fills the 120 seats of its Knesset by closed-list PR using the D'Hondt method. Only parties that reach the 3.25% electoral threshold (the minimum vote share needed to win any seat) take part in the count. Here is a simple case: 3 seats, Party A with 1,000 votes and Party B with 600. A's results are 1,000, 500 and 333, and B's are 600 and 300. The three largest are 1,000 (A), 600 (B) and 500 (A), so A wins 2 seats and B wins 1.
Don't confuse with
- Single transferable vote (STV): voters rank candidates, and a candidate wins by reaching a quota of [votes ÷ (seats + 1)] + 1. India uses STV for the Rajya Sabha, the President and the Vice-President. D'Hondt counts party votes and has no ranking.
- First-past-the-post (FPTP): the candidate with the most votes in a constituency wins, even without a majority. Seats are not shared out by vote share. India uses FPTP for the Lok Sabha and assemblies.