Electoral maths: A game of kingmakers, overhangs and fractions

Electoral maths: A game of kingmakers, overhangs and fractions
The battle over the Beehive could take weeks. (Image: Depositphotos)
Dileepa Fonseka
Plenty of people can’t wait for the election to be over, but when results from the election start trickling in tomorrow evening, it may well just be the start of a different saga.Systems of proportional representation can throw up odd combinations of parties, making it difficult for anybody to stitch together a coalition.We probably won’t get a 16-month deadlock like the Belgian government had in 2019 and 2020, but the problem you always have with multi-party governing arrangements is any deal you try to stitch up has the potential...

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