Underhang seat
Encyclopedia
In proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...

 (PR) electoral systems, an underhang seat is a seat to which a party is entitled by virtue of the share of the votes it has received but is unable to fill through having submitted too few candidates.

Under party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation in elections in which multiple candidates are elected...

 systems, parties receive a number of seats in proportion to the number of votes they received. If a party does not have enough people to fill its vacancies, there is an underhang. For example, if a party wins enough votes for ten seats, but only have seven people nominated on its list, then there is an underhang of three seats.

Parties with underhangs usually are not entitled to retroactively add to their list, and lose the potential seats represented by the underhang. For instance, if New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

's 99 MP Party
99 MP Party
The 99 MP Party was a small New Zealand political party that contested the 2005 General Election. It supported a reduction of the number of Members of Parliament from 120 to 99.-History:...

 (whose stated manifesto is to reduce the size of parliament) had received five percent of the vote in the 2005 New Zealand general election
New Zealand general election, 2005
The 2005 New Zealand general election held on 17 September 2005 determined the composition of the 48th New Zealand Parliament. No party won a majority in the unicameral House of Representatives, but the Labour Party of Prime Minister Helen Clark secured two more seats than nearest rival, the...

, they would have been entitled to six seats within the 120 seat House of Representatives. But as they had just two people on their list, they would have filled only two seats. The House would thus have shrunk by four MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

s. Since the party received only 0.03% of the vote, this eventuality was avoided.

Another way of dealing with underhangs is to allow the party to nominate people to become MPs.

Parties aim to avoid the problem by having a substantially larger list than they would hope to win as seats.
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