[pp.int.general] Social r-evolution in Spain - #spanishrevolution (Rok Andr?e)

[Philip Hunt]

On 20 May 2011 14:40, Josef Ohlsson Collentine <josef at collentine.com> wrote:
>>
>> 3. We understand your need to find speakers and classify the
>> unclassifiable, but again: the only spokesman for the camp is the daily
>> plenary assembly, and the only official statements are his records, which
>> you can see in the bloghttp://acampadabcn.wordpress.com /

Just wondered if you could clarify some points.

In <http://acampadabcn.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/acta-20-maig/> it says
(point 1) that you want to reform the electoral system because d'Hondt
favours big parties. Is the problem the 5% threshold that is (I think)
used in elections in Spain? Obviously any threshold would help big
parties, but d'Hondt in itself is reasonably proportional in itself,
provided the total number of seats at stake is reasonably large.

(Incidentally, we recently had an election in Scotland using a system
with an approximately 5% threshold; this resulted in about 12% of
votes being wasted. If there was no threshold, PPUK would stand a
decent chance of winning seats.)

What does "Votos en blanco" mean? My best guess at translating it into
English would be "blank votes"; evidently it is a term of art in
Spanish elections.

-- 
Philip Hunt, <cabalamat at gmail.com>