the rest of the world adopts popular vote
Not here in Australia. Like Kevin says, the Prime Minister is the leader of the party which wins the most seats during the national election. He is only directly elected in his local government seat, not as the Prime Minister.
It is a bit goofy as well. If there is more than two candidates, say four, you must vote from 1 to 4 for each of the candidates. All candidates other than the top two vote getters are eliminated, then your vote is given to the candicate for which you gave the highest 'preference'.
So if the four candidates were A,B,C,D and you voted A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4, and the two highest popular vote candidates were C and D, your vote would get cast for candidate C even though he was your third choice.
With this system there are a lot of votes that are thrown out each election when the voter only selects one candidate and doesn't offer a ranking for each of the candidates.
tom |
