voorkeursstem

Voorkeursstem, or preference vote, is a voting mechanism used in some proportional representation systems that enables voters to indicate a preferred candidate on a party list. Instead of voting only for a party, voters can mark a candidate’s name or number on the party’s list, and those votes are counted toward the party’s overall result as well as toward the individual candidate.

The effect of a voorkeursstem depends on the electoral rules in a given jurisdiction. If a candidate receives a legally defined threshold of preference votes, they can move up the party list or be elected ahead of others who were higher on the list, altering the eventual order of elected representatives. The threshold and the precise impact are determined by national or local election law and can vary between elections and countries.

In practice, voorkeursstemmen can promote candidates who enjoy broad personal support, even if they were initially placed lower on a party list. They are commonly used in the Netherlands and Belgium, among other jurisdictions that employ open or flexible party lists. Some systems allow voters to cast preference votes for multiple candidates, while others limit or structure how preference votes can affect the final seat allocation.

Advantages of this mechanism include increased accountability for individual candidates and greater voter influence on which people are elected. Critics note potential complexity, intra-party tensions, and the possibility that well-known individuals disproportionately benefit from preference votes, sometimes at the expense of party strategy.