PR with combination of party list and personal vote

[politicus]

How common is this? If your country has PR, do you get the choice between voting for a party list or a candidate?

(not taliking about STV or anything similar, only systems where party list voting is an option)

[joevsimp]

none of the forms of party list pr used in Britain allow that, you just vote for the party and the sseats get assigned in the order that they are on the list (usually determined by the party mebers who vote in the selection, some parties will alternate male and female candidates down the list in the order of their vote in the selection.

 the only one I know for certain off the top of my head is Finland

[Antonio the Sixth]

In Finland you vote for candidate. The candidates form a list that is used in seat distribution. If parties form an electoral coalition, the votes of two parties are summed together. It is typical that local people (a favourite son effect) and different currents (stalinist wing of communist party or some evangelical groups) concentrate their vote to some candidate.

I've always thought the Finnish system was one of the best in the world (though it's definitely not fit for every country).

[Tender Branson]

In Austria you have a party list, but with preferential candidate voting.

In theory, if a candidate who's let's say ranked 50th on the list, starts a preference voting campaign and that candidate receives a ton of votes, then that person will get ranked 1st on the list after the election (unless some other candidate has more preference votes).

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

In Finland you vote for candidate. The candidates form a list that is used in seat distribution.

Same for me.

[Angel of Death]

Wikipedia to the rescue!

[MaxQue]

Belgium, I think.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

In Austria you have a party list, but with preferential candidate voting.

In theory, if a candidate who's let's say ranked 50th on the list, starts a preference voting campaign and that candidate receives a ton of votes, then that person will get ranked 1st on the list after the election (unless some other candidate has more preference votes).

This is also how it works in Sweden.

[politicus]

Wikipedia to the rescue!

Yeah sure, its a good starting point, but its a bit inaccurate, fx it mentions Fiji, where you cant vote for a party, just for a candidate (whose eventual  surplus votes are then distributed to other candidates on the party list). I was interested in genuine combos of party list vote and personal vote, where both options exist.

[Tender Branson]

I'll write more on how that Austrian preference system works tomorrow.

A few early things: It's complicated, hardly used by voters and there are some hurdles which means hardly any candidates are moved up on the lists (in the 2013 federal election, only 1 candidate out of 183 MPs was elected with the help of preference votes).