Closed list describes the variant of

party-list system A party-list system is a type of electoral system that formally involves Political party, political parties in the electoral process, usually to facilitate Multiwinner elections, multi-winner elections. In party-list systems, parties put forward a ...

s where voters can effectively vote for only

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some influence, that would be called an

open list Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a Political party, party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, in which party lists ...

. Closed list systems are still commonly used in

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionm ...

, and most

mixed electoral systems A mixed electoral system is one that uses different electoral systems to elect different seats in a legislature. Most often, this involves a First Past the Post combined with a proportional component. The results of the combination may be mixed- ...

also use closed lists in their party list component. Many countries, however have changed their electoral systems to use open lists to incorporate personalised representation to their proportional systems. In closed list systems, each political party has pre-decided who will receive the seats allocated to that party in the elections, so that the candidates positioned highest on this list tend to always get a seat in the parliament while the candidates positioned very low on the closed list will not. However, the candidates "at the water mark" of a given party are in the position of either losing or winning their seat depending on the number of votes the party gets. "The water mark" is the number of seats a specific party can be expected to achieve. The number of seats that the party wins, combined with the candidates' positions on the party's list, will then determine whether a particular candidate will get a seat.

List of countries using closed list systems

Proportional representation

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...

Burundi Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

(depending on the party) *

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

* Elections in Equatorial Guinea, Equatorial Guinea * Politics of Guatemala, Guatemala * Elections in Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Bissau * Elections in Guyana, Guyana * Elections in Hong Kong, Hong Kong (1997–2016) * Elections in Israel, Israel * Elections in Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan * Elections in Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyzstan * Elections in Lithuania, Lithuania (1992–1997) (Seimas and municipalities' councils) * Elections in Moldova, Moldova * Elections in Montenegro, Montenegro * Elections in Morocco, Morocco * Elections in Mozambique, Mozambique * Elections in Namibia, Namibia * Elections in Nicaragua, Nicaragua * Elections in Niger, Niger * Elections in Macedonia, North Macedonia * Elections in Norway, Norway (de facto) * Elections in Paraguay, Paraguay * Elections in Portugal, Portugal * Elections in Romania, Romania * Elections in Rwanda, Rwanda * Elections in Serbia, Serbia * Elections in South Africa, South Africa * Elections in Spain, Spain * Elections in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka * Elections in Timor-Leste, Timor-Leste * Elections in Togo, Togo * Elections in Tunisia, Tunisia * Elections in Turkey, Turkey * Elections in Uruguay, Uruguay * Senedd#Elections, Wales (from 2026) *

Mixed electoral systems

Mixed electoral system using closed lists for the proportional component * Elections in Andorra, Andorra * Elections in Hungary, Hungary * Elections in Germany, Germany (mixed-member proportional representation) * Elections in Italy, Italy * Elections in New Zealand, New Zealand (mixed-member proportional representation) * Elections in Russia, Russia * Elections in Scotland, Scotland * Elections in Taiwan, Taiwan * Elections in Wales, Wales (1999–2026) *

Majoritarian representation

Party block voting (general ticket) with a closed list * Elections in Côte d'Ivoire, Côte d'Ivoire (party block voting in multi-member districts) * Elections in Singapore, Singapore (party block voting in multi-member districts) * Elections in United States, United States (electoral college) *

References

External links