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51-581: The Hougang Single Member Constituency is a single member constituency (SMC) located in the north-eastern area of Singapore . It is managed by Aljunied-Hougang Town Council. The current Member of Parliament is Dennis Tan of the Workers' Party (WP). The constituency was first formed prior to the 1988 general election and was won by the People's Action Party (PAP) in its debut. However, PAP's representation of Hougang SMC would only last three years, when it lost

102-542: A candidate because they are endorsed by a particular political party or because they are in favor of who would become or remain the leader of the government, more than their feelings for or against the actual candidate standing. Sometimes voters are in favor of a political party but do not like specific candidates. For example, voters in Canada re-elected the Alberta government in 1989 but, because of dissatisfaction with its leadership,

153-535: A candidate can often be elected with the support of only a minority of votes, leaving the majority of votes cast wasted, and thus a moderate winning vote of say just 34 percent repeated in several swing seats can be enough to create a landslide increase in seats won by a government. The district-by-district basis of ' First past the post voting ' elections means that parties will usually categorise and target various districts by whether they are likely to be held with ease, or winnable by extra campaigning, or written off as

204-411: A foregone loss hardly worth fighting for. A safe seat is one that is regarded as very unlikely to be won by a rival politician based on the constituency 's past voting record or polling results. Conversely, a marginal seat or swing seat is one that could easily swing either way, and may even have changed hands frequently in recent decades - the party that currently holds it may have only won it by

255-446: A low effective number of parties . Malta with only two major parties is a stark example of divergence from Duverger's rule. In a system where the intent is to avoid the waste of votes, a set proportion of votes, as a minimum, assures the election of a candidate. This is set as the inverse of the district magnitude plus one, plus one, the Droop quota . Droop is the mathematical threshold that

306-562: A municipality. However, in the Republic of Ireland , voting districts are called local electoral areas . District magnitude is a term invented by the American political scientist Douglas W. Rae in his 1967 dissertation The Political Consequences of Electoral Laws . It refers to the number of seats assigned to each district, and thus helping determine the number of seats to be filled in any election. Staggered terms are sometimes used to reduce

357-487: A particular group has a slight majority, for instance, gerrymandering politicians can obtain 2/3 of that district's seats. Similarly, by making four-member districts in regions where the same group has slightly less than a majority, gerrymandering politicians can still secure exactly half of the seats. However, any possible gerrymandering that theoretically could occur would be much less effective because minority groups can still elect at least one representative if they make up

408-504: A plurality or majority of voters, depending on the electoral system, support a particular candidate or party so strongly that the candidate's election is practically guaranteed in advance of the vote. This means votes for other candidates effectively make no difference to the result. This results in feelings of disenfranchisement, as well as increased nonparticipation , by both supporters of the dominant candidate (who can confidently abstain from voting because their preferred candidate's victory

459-428: A significant percentage of the population (e.g. 20–25%), compared to single-member districts where 40–49% of the voters can be essentially shut out from any representation. Sometimes, particularly under non-proportional or winner-takes-all voting systems, elections can be prone to landslide victories . As the result in each district is not related to votes cast elsewhere and may not reflect a party's national popularity,

510-880: A significant presence in an area. Many assemblies allow free postage (through franking privilege or prepaid envelopes) from a representative to a constituent, and often free telecommunications. Caseworkers may be employed by representatives to assist constituents with problems. Members of the U.S. Congress (both Representatives and Senators) working in Washington, D.C., have a governmentally staffed district office to aid in constituent services. Many state legislatures have followed suit. Likewise, British MPs use their Parliamentary staffing allowance to appoint staff for constituency casework. Client politics and pork barrel politics are associated with constituency work. In some elected assemblies, some or all constituencies may group voters based on some criterion other than, or in addition to,

561-517: A slender margin and a party that wants to win it may be able to take it away from its present holder with little effort. In United Kingdom general elections and United States presidential and congressional elections, the voting in a relatively small number of swing seats usually determines the outcome of the entire election. Parties aspire to hold as many safe seats as possible, and high-level politicians, such as prime ministers, prefer to stand in safe seats. In large multi-party systems like India ,

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612-522: A small shift in election results, sometimes caused by swing votes, can lead to no party taking a majority of seats, causing a hung assembly . This may arise from a significant number of seats going to smaller regional parties instead of the larger national parties which are the main competitors at the national or state level, as was the situation in the Lok Sabha (Lower house of the Parliament of India ) during

663-462: A stronger connection between the representative and constituents and increases accountability and is a check on incompetence and corruption. In countries that have multi-member constituencies, it is argued that the constituency link is lost. For example, in Israel the whole country is a single constituency and representatives are selected by party-lists. On the other hand, today most voters tend to vote for

714-850: A stronghold for the WP by political analysts, having been retained by the party since 1991. Note: The Elections Department Singapore (ELD) does not include rejected votes for calculation of candidate's vote share. Hence, the total of all candidates' vote share will be 100%. 1°22′18.4″N 103°53′35″E  /  1.371778°N 103.89306°E  / 1.371778; 103.89306 Single Member Constituency Condorcet methods Positional voting Cardinal voting Quota-remainder methods Approval-based committees Fractional social choice Semi-proportional representation By ballot type Pathological response Strategic voting Paradoxes of majority rule Positive results A single-member district or constituency

765-673: Is allowed to affect apportionment, with rural areas with sparse populations allocated more seats per elector: for example in Iceland, the Falkland Islands, Scottish islands, and (partly) in US Senate elections. Gerrymandering is the manipulation of electoral district boundaries for political gain. By creating a few "forfeit" districts where opposing candidates win overwhelmingly, gerrymandering politicians can manufacture more, but narrower, wins for themselves and their party. Gerrymandering relies on

816-654: Is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district , which is represented by multiple officeholders. In some countries, such as Australia and India , members of the lower house of parliament are elected from single-member districts, while members of the upper house are elected from multi-member districts. In some other countries, such as Singapore , members of parliament can be elected from either single-member or multi-member districts. The United States Constitution , ratified in 1789, states: "The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by

867-537: Is minimal (exactly 1) in plurality voting in single-member districts ( First-past-the-post voting used in most cases). As well, where multi-member districts are used, threshold de facto stays high if seats are filled by general ticket or other pro-landslide party block system (rarely used nationwide nowadays). In such situations each voter has one vote. District magnitude is larger than 1 where multiple members are elected - plural districts ), and under plurality block voting (where voter may cast as many votes as

918-441: Is nearly assured) as well as supporters of other candidates (who know their preferred candidate is essentially guaranteed to lose). Single-member districts enable gerrymandering, the practice of manipulating district boundaries to favor one political party. Whereas proportional multi-member districts ensure that political parties are represented roughly in proportion to the share of the vote they receive, in single-member districts

969-566: Is not located within the SMC but just outside it, in the adjacent Aljunied GRC – which is also represented by WP MPs. Hougang Community Club and Hougang Neighbourhood Park are located within the constituency. To prevent a monopoly of WP stronghold across Hougang New Town, it has to be divided into three constituencies - Aljunied GRC, Ang Mo Kio GRC and Hougang SMC. The remainder of Hougang consisting of Hougang Stadium, Sports Hall and Swimming Pool falls under Ang Mo Kio GRC. The constituency has been labeled

1020-404: Is not synonymous with proportional representation. The use of "general ticket voting" prevents the multiple-member representation of the district from being mixed and balanced. Where list PR is used in the district, a closed list PR method gives the party machine, not the voters, the power to arrange the candidates on the party list. In this case, a large district magnitude helps minorities only if

1071-425: Is the mathematical minimum whereby no more will be elected than there are seats to be filled. It ensures election in contests where all votes are used to elect someone. (Probabilistic threshold should include the likely number of votes wasted to minor lists). For instance, a 10%-polling party will not win a seat in a 5-member district (Droop quota of 1/6=16.67%) but will do so in a 10-member district as its 10 percent of

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1122-491: The 2014 United States House of Representatives elections , the Republican Party won 51.2% of the popular vote but 56.7% of the seats. Supporters view this effect as beneficial, claiming that two-party systems are more stable, and that the minority opposition does not have undue power to break a coalition. First-past-the-post minimizes the influence of third parties and thus arguably keeps out forms of opposition outside of

1173-523: The 2018 Wisconsin State Assembly election , for example, the Republican Party won 45% of the popular vote but 64% of the seats, due in part to gerrymandering ). Contrary to conventional wisdom, a 2023 study found that single-member district systems do not have more geographically representative parliaments than systems with multi-member districts. Electoral district The names for electoral districts vary across countries and, occasionally, for

1224-648: The Cantonal Council of Zürich are reapportioned in every election based on the number of votes cast in each district , which is only made possible by use of multi-member districts, and the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina , by contrast, is apportioned without regard to population; the three major ethnic groups – Bosniaks , Serbs , and Croats – each get exactly five members. Malapportionment occurs when voters are under- or over-represented due to variation in district population. In some places, geographical area

1275-599: The Uniform Congressional District Act ( 2 U.S. Code §2c ), under the justification that they served as bulwarks against southern Democrats diluting the electoral power of African Americans by using strategically drawn at-large multi-member districts. For instance, Southern Democrats could create a single statewide multi-member district elected by plurality vote, all but guaranteeing the white majority would elect only Democrats. It has been argued by proponents of single-member constituencies that it encourages

1326-439: The wasted-vote effect , effectively concentrating wasted votes among opponents while minimizing wasted votes among supporters. Consequently, gerrymandering is typically done under voting systems using single-member districts, which have more wasted votes. While much more difficult, gerrymandering can also be done under proportional-voting systems when districts elect very few seats. By making three-member districts in regions where

1377-404: The 1990s. Elected representatives may spend much of the time serving the needs or demands of individual constituents , meaning either voters or residents of their district. This is more common in assemblies with many single-member or small districts than those with fewer, larger districts. In a looser sense, corporations and other such organizations can be referred to as constituents, if they have

1428-542: The People of the several States...Representatives...shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers." In other words, the Constitution specifies that each state will be apportioned a number of representatives in the House of Representatives proportional to its population. It does not, however, specify how those representatives should be apportioned. In

1479-401: The dominant rival party. Critics of two-party systems believe that two-party systems offer less choice to voters, create an exaggerated emphasis on issues that dominate more marginal seats, and does not completely remove the possibility of a balanced chamber (or hung parliament ), which can also give undue power to independents and lead to more, not less, stability. A safe seat is one in which

1530-576: The early years of the United States, a form of multi-member districts called plural districts were the norm. In contrast with modern proportional multi-member districts (which had not yet been invented), plural districts were elected at-large in plurality votes. By 1842, single-member House districts had become the norm, with twenty-two states using single-member districts and only six using at-large multi-member districts. On 14 December 1967, single-member House districts were mandated by law pursuant to

1581-1027: The electorate or where relatively few members overall are elected, even if the election is held at-large. District magnitude may be set at an equal number of seats in each district. Examples include: all districts of the Northern Ireland Assembly elected 6 members (5 members since 2017); all those of the Parliament of Malta send 5 MPs; Chile, between 1989 and 2013, used a method called binomial voting , which assigned 2 MPs to each district. In many cases, however, multi-member constituencies correspond to already existing jurisdictions (regions, districts, wards, cities, counties, states or provinces), which creates differences in district magnitude from district to district: The concept of district magnitude helps explains why Duverger's speculated correlation between proportional representation and party system fragmentation has many counter-examples, as PR methods combined with small-sized multi-member constituencies may produce

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1632-400: The entire district is represented by a single politician, even if a sizeable minority (or even a majority, in the case of plurality voting) of the electorate votes for candidates from other parties. This enables political parties to rig elections in their favor by drawing districts in such a way that more districts are won by their party than their proportion of the overall vote would dictate (in

1683-459: The legislature. When referring to a particular legislative constituency, it is simply referred to as "Kṣetra" along with the name of the legislature, in Hindi (e.g. 'Lok Sabha Kshetra' for a Lok Sabha constituency). Electoral districts for buli municipal or other local bodies are called "wards". Local electoral districts are sometimes called wards , a term also used for administrative subdivisions of

1734-521: The location they live. Examples include: Not all democratic political systems use separate districts or other electoral subdivisions to conduct elections. Israel , for instance, conducts parliamentary elections as a single district. The 26 electoral districts in Italy and the 20 in the Netherlands have a role in the actual election, but no role whatsoever in the division of the seats. Ukraine elected half of

1785-447: The make-up of the district map, made easier by a multitude of micro-small districts. A higher magnitude means less wasted votes, and less room for such maneuvers. As well, a fair voting system in the district contests also means that gerrymandering is ineffective because each party gets their fair share of seats however districts are drawn, at least theoretically. Multiple-member contests sometimes use plurality block voting , which allows

1836-541: The number of representatives allotted to each. Israel and the Netherlands are among the few countries that avoid the need for apportionment entirely by electing legislators at-large . Apportionment is generally done on the basis of population . Seats in the United States House of Representatives , for instance, are reapportioned to individual states every 10 years following a census, with some states that have grown in population gaining seats. By contrast, seats in

1887-486: The number of seats to be filled), proportional representation or single transferable vote elections (where the voter casts just one vote). In STV elections DM normally range from 2 to 10 members in a district. But 21 are elected in a single contest conducted through STV in New South Wales (Australia). In list PR systems DM may exceed 100. District magnitude is maximized where: DM is moderate where districts break up

1938-583: The number of seats up for election at any one time, when district magnitude is more than one. The number of seats up for election varies the ease or difficulty to be elected, as the threshold de facto decreases in proportion as the number of seats being filled increases, unless a pro-landslide voting system is used such as general ticket voting. The concept of magnitude explains Duverger's observation that single-winner contests tend to produce two-party systems , and proportional representation (PR) methods tend to produce multi-party systems . District magnitude

1989-518: The office being elected. The term constituency is commonly used to refer to an electoral district, especially in British English , but it can also refer to the body of eligible voters or all the residents of the represented area or only those who voted for a certain candidate. The terms (election) precinct and election district are more common in American English . In Canadian English ,

2040-504: The party machine of any party chooses to include them. In a multi-member district where general ticket voting is not used, there is a natural impetus for a party to open itself to minority voters, if they have enough numbers to be significant, due to the competitive environment produced by the electoral system. Apportionment is the process of allocating a number of representatives to different regions, such as states or provinces. Apportionment changes are often accompanied by redistricting ,

2091-426: The premier and leader of the governing party, Don Getty , lost his seat. It has been argued that single-member districts tend to promote two-party systems (with some regional parties). Called Duverger's law , this principle has also been empirically supported by the cube rule , which shows how the winning party in a first-past-the-post system is mathematically over-represented in the legislature. For example, in

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2142-461: The redrawing of electoral district boundaries to accommodate the new number of representatives. This redrawing is necessary under single-member district systems, as each new representative requires their own district. Multi-member systems, however, vary depending on other rules. Ireland, for example, redraws its electoral districts after every census while Belgium uses its existing administrative boundaries for electoral districts and instead modifies

2193-442: The representation of minorities. John Stuart Mill had endorsed proportional representation (PR) and STV in the mid-19th century precisely to respond to this shortcoming. With lower district magnitudes, the only way to include demographic minorities scattered across the country is to force parties to include them: Large district magnitudes increase the chance for diverse walks of life and minority groups to be elected. However, it

2244-437: The rules permit voters not to rank all the candidates or prevent them from ranking all the candidates, some votes are declared exhausted. Thus it is common for one or two members in a district to be elected without attaining Droop. Larger district magnitudes means larger districts, so annihilate the need and practice of gerrymandering , Gerrymandering is the practice of partisan redistricting by means of creating imbalances in

2295-525: The seat to the Worker's Party (WP) candidate Low Thia Khiang after an almost 12% swing during the 1991 general election . In the 2006 general election , Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong was tasked to help the PAP win back the two opposition wards of Hougang SMC and Potong Pasir SMC with a $ 100 million plan to upgrade the constituency. However, Low retained the seat with 62.7% of the votes. From 1991 to 2011, it

2346-463: The single largest group to take all the district seats. Each voter having just one vote in a multi-member district, Single voting, a component of most party-list proportional representation methods as well as single non-transferable vote and single transferable vote , prevents such a landslide. High district magnitude is a major factor in the inclusion of minorities . Plurality (and other elections with lower district magnitudes) are known to limit

2397-466: The term electorate generally refers specifically to the body of voters. In India , electoral districts are referred to as " Nirvācan Kṣetra " ( Hindi : निर्वाचन क्षेत्र ) in Hindi , which can be translated to English as "electoral area" though the official English translation for the term is "constituency". The term "Nirvācan Kṣetra" is used while referring to an electoral district in general irrespective of

2448-463: The term is used, especially officially, but is also colloquially and more commonly known as a riding or constituency . In some parts of Canada, constituency is used for provincial districts and riding for federal districts. In colloquial Canadian French , they are called comtés ("counties"), while circonscriptions comtés is the legal term. In Australia and New Zealand , Electoral districts are called electorates , however elsewhere

2499-513: The vote exceeds the Droop quota in such a district (1/11=9%). In systems where a noticeable number of votes are wasted, such as Single non-transferable voting or Instant-runoff voting where transferable votes are used but voters are prohibited from ranking all candidates, you will see candidates win with less than Droop. STV is intended to avoid waste of votes by the use of transferable votes but even in STV, if

2550-581: The vote. Png retired prior to the 2020 general election ; the WP candidate Dennis Tan retained the seat in that election with 61.2% of the vote. The seat is located in the North-East Region of the country, with the closest train station being the namesake Hougang MRT station on the North East MRT line and the Cross Island MRT line (currently under construction), although the station itself

2601-453: Was one of only two opposition-held (i.e. non-PAP) seats in Parliament . During the 2011 general election , Low Thia Kiang left to contest the nearby Aljunied GRC , Yaw Shin Leong , who retained the seat with 65% of the vote. On 15 February 2012, Yaw was expelled from the party for personal indiscretions, triggering a by-election . Png Eng Huat retained the seat for the party with 62.1% of

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