1. The Additional Member System

2. How does it work?
Scotland is divided into 73 constituencies, and each constituency elects one MSP. They are known as constituency MSPs. This is the elector’s first vote. The second vote is used to elect 56 additional members. Scotland is divided into 8 parliamentary regions and each region elects 7 regional MSPs. In the second vote, the voter votes for a party rather than a candidate.
The parties are then allocated a number of additional members to make the overall result more proportional. The regional MSPs are selected from lists compiled by the parties. These MSPs are sometimes referred to as List MSPs.

3. Advantages of AMS
Using AMS strikes a balance between proportionality and the need for having constituency representation and a link between the representative and their constituents. People still know who their MSP is, and who to contact if they have a problem, but the list MSPs also offer choice. A Conservative voter in Moray may choose to contact their Conservative list MSP – Douglas Ross, rather then their SNP constituency MSP – Richard Lochhead, because they may feel a Conservative MSP may be more sympathetic on a particular issue.

4. It is measurably fairer because it can be shown that there is a closer relationship between the percentage of votes and the percentage of seats. – For example in the 2007 Scottish election, the Labour Party won just over half of the constituency seats (37 out of 73) on the basis of 32% of the vote, its overall representation in Parliament was “corrected” by the party list seats. This gave Labour 36% of the total seats, and so the SNP gained most seats and became the government.
In 2011 the SNP won 53 out of 73 constituency seats (73%) with 45% of the vote. Labour won 20% of seats with 31% of votes. After the list correction the SNP ended up with 53% of the seats.

5. 2016
In 2016 the SNP got 46.5% of the constituency votes, but 59 out of 73 constituency seats (80%).
This was made fairer by the regional seats which meant that the SNP ended up with 48% of the total seats.
The Conservatives won 7 constituency seats which is about 10% but got 22% of the vote – so the regional seats corrected this – they ended up with 31 MSPs (24%) with 22% of the vote.

6. Minor Parties
AMS gives minor parties more parliamentary representation and encourages voters to vote for them without feeling that their vote is wasted. AMS elections in Scotland have meant that small parties like Greens, SSCUP, Scottish Socialists and Independents have all won representation since 1999.

7. Green Party
The Green party won 6% of the vote in 2016, and got 6 seats in Parliament (about 5%)
They have been instrumental in supporting the SNP – as the SNP is a minority government

8. More Choice
Voters have more choice – because of the two ballot papers, people can choose one party for their constituency MSP and another for their list – this has seen the rise of “split-ticket” voting, where people vote for two parties. This meant that between 1999 and 2007 the Labour Party and the Lib Dems formed coalitions in Scotland – there was evidence that people had voted for the coalition by “splitting their tickets”

9. More Microcosmic Representation
Women and ethnic minorities are more likely to be represented – this is because discrimination of the constituency system can be overcome. Parties can choose to put more female and BAME candidates on their lists to increase their representation in the final outcome. Scotland has a far higher level of female representation than the Westminster Parliament does.

10. Labour Party
The Labour Party have long been the most progressive in terms of promoting gender equality.
In 2016, despite their huge losses overall, they managed to maintain the near 50/50 split between male and female MSPs (46% female)
They use a strategy called “zipping” on the list to ensure males and females are alternated.

11. Role Models
The increase in numbers of women represented means that there can be more female role models in Scottish Politics – which will hopefully have the effect of further increasing female representation in the future.
Three of the main party leaders are female
Nicola Sturgeon,
Ruth Davidson and
Kezia Dugdale.

12. More Coalitions
Coalition government leads to consensus, negotiation and compromise and this leads to stable government. The Lib Dems and Labour formed a strong coalition between 1999 and There are also good examples from abroad of strong, effective coalition government brought about by the use of the AMS system – for example in Germany which has used the system for 50 years.

13. However… AMS also has disadvantages…
It is not as proportional as the Party List system – percentage of votes is still not exactly equal to percentage of seats.
In 2011 the SNP ended up with more than half of the seats – 53%, with fewer than half of the votes (45%)

14. Coalitions have no mandate
Coalition government can be argued to be unfair, and give small parties too much power – the Lib Dems become the “kingmakers” despite having the fewest votes. They get to decide which party will form the government – if everyone wanted the Lib Dems to have this power, why didn’t they just vote for them?

15. Small parties don’t always do well
Small parties did not actually do so well in 2007 – the number of MSPs from minority parties fell from 17 to 3 where it remained after 2011.
From 2016 the only small party was the Green Party – so the Parliament is not as diverse as was hoped.

16. Women’s Representation
Party
Female
Male
Total
% Female
SNP 27 36 63
42.9%
Con 6 25 31
19.4%
Lab 11 13 24
45.8%
Green 1 5
16.7%
Lib Dem 0% 45 84
129
34.9%
Same as 2011 – still not 50%

17. Gives too much power to Parties to choose the list
While the SNP and Labour used quotas to try and increase female representation (Labour’s vote collapse did not help it here), the low number of women MSPs in 2016 can be blamed on a rise in Conservatives.
Only around 19% of Scottish Conservative candidates were women– and one of their regional lists, Highlands and Islands, was men-only. Top list places were also predominantly taken by men – with the party’s North East Scotland list returning four male MSPs, while West Scotland included more candidates named ‘Maurice’ (two, both elected), than it did women (one, in tenth position). The same number of Conservative women were elected as in 2011 – six – but this is set in the context of the party (more than) doubling its seats, which means that only 19% of Conservative MSPs are women.

18. Ethnic Minority Representation
The Scottish Parliament still has only two black and minority ethnic (BME) MSPs –SNP Minister Humza Yousaf, and Labour MSP Anas Sarwar
Labour list MSP Hanzala Malik (elected in 2011) was placed 11th on the party’s regional list in 2016 and was not re-elected. It remains a key problem that there has never been a BME female MSP in the Scottish Parliament.

19. Disabled MSPs
Despite all of the main political parties signing up to the One in Five Campaign (seeking to increase political participation among people with disabilities), at time of writing there appears to be only one openly disabled MSP, Jeremy Balfour (Conservative, Lothian) elected for the first time in 2016, while sitting MSPs Siobhan McMahon (Labour) and Dennis Robertson (SNP) lost their seats (and Conservative MSP Cameron Buchanan stood down in 2016).