What is proportional representation?

Proportional representation (PR) is a principle that says the percentage of seats a party has in the legislature should reflect the percentage of people who voted for that party. If a party gets 40% of the vote, they should get 40% of the seats.

Under our non-proportional voting system, a party can win a majority of seats and all the power with far less than half the popular vote.

Proportional representation ensures that majority governments have an actual majority of the voters behind them.

Under our non-proportional voting system, in most elections, most voters don’t elect anyone to represent them. They don’t affect the election at all. Their votes are “wasted”. This is what leads to distorted results.

With PR, almost every vote helps elect an MP. Almost everyone is represented.

With PR, every law passed will have the support of MPs representing a real majority of voters. That means better policy decisions for everyone.

Proportional Representation 101: A short video

Learn more:

Learn about first past the post and its problems

More reasons first past the post must go

The Evidence: Proportional representation makes a difference to democracy, economy, health, environment and more. Check out the slide show about the research on PR.

Learn how proportional representation models work

Proportional Representation 101