Under the current proportional system, the new department would be the responsibility of the SDLP.
Next May's elections for the Scottish parliament will take place under a proportional system.
AV, but he points out that Mr Blair has already admitted that it is not a proportional system.
In future, if the first-past-the-post electoral system is replaced by a more proportional system, such powers may become more important.
Labour offered to enact AV and conduct a referendum on a much more proportional system, the single transferable vote (STV).
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MPs know that a more proportional system is likely to mean fewer Labour seats, so there are careers on the line.
By the autumn, faced with Scottish parliament elections, using yet another proportional system, voters could be both bewildered and fed up with constant electioneering.
He must also avoid giving the impression that he has given up too easily his own party's dream of an ultra-proportional system of single transferable votes.
Australia's 76 senators are elected through a proportional system in the country's eight states and territories for a six-year term (half running for election every three years).
Just to add complication, each will have a different electoral system: council elections in May will be by the traditional first-past-the-post method, European elections in June by a proportional system.
Assuming it has passed, there will now be a fresh general election, in December, with a more proportional system of representation, in which many more Sunnis are expected to participate.
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Australia, which has a lower house elected on the basis of first-past-the-post in which the prime minister sits, and an upper house elected on a proportional system, is a good parallel.
All the same, the proportional system for choosing a quarter of the seats, which allowed so many of those midgets to get into the last parliament, is still untouched, storing up instability for a time when the balance of power between the big blocks once again becomes more delicate.
All want the House of Lords to be wholly or largely elected under a proportional voting system.
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Israel today is governed by a proportional electoral system that treats the entire country as a unitary voting district.
While Mr Blair remains in office, Lib Dem hopes of a more proportional electoral system for Westminster live on.
And the new proportional representation system would give Tory rebels a better chance of winning seats as an independent party.
The case for a more proportional electoral system could then become irresistible, though that would not answer the immediate question of who governs.
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The election is based on a proportional representation system that requires voters to select a party's list of candidates rather than one specific individual.
Israel would have to consider its electoral laws and weigh the prospect of moving from a proportional representation system to a direct, district system.
The way the chamber of deputies is formed - by an open-list proportional representation system - makes it easier for celebrity candidates to win office.
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However, in Israel's highly fragmented proportional voting system, Mr Netanyahu is expected to seek a coalition government with other parties from the right, including Naftali Bennett's.
Santorum needed the Texas primary on May 29, with 154 delegates at stake, to be winner-take-all instead of the proportional allocation system based on vote results now in place.
In Congress, it should be the largest party in the lower house (despite the electronic vote, the Electoral Tribunal takes several days to confirm the allocation of seats under Brazil's complicated proportional representation system).
The Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for a more proportional voting system, with the single transferable vote their favoured option, but the Conservatives agreed to a referendum on AV as part of the coalition deal.
He also hit out at the present proportional representation system for voting for assembly members which he described as leading to "perverse outcomes", with candidates defeated in a first-past-the-post system getting in under the regional list ballot.
Mr Clegg duly unveiled a plan on May 17th that calls for a chamber of 300 representatives (less than half the current size), with 80% elected for 15-year terms under a proportional voting system, and the remaining 20% appointed.
If, however, something close to a fully federal system has emerged, with real power and legitimacy devolved to regional assemblies and mayors, and with a more proportional electoral system for the Commons, then a powerful upper house may come to seem not only unnecessary but dangerous, for it would risk gridlock.
That is because Argentina's proportional-voting system encourages party discipline as elections draw near.
Much of Labour's support, however, stems from disenchantment with the first government to be elected under the now unpopular proportional-representation system.
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