Tag Archives: PEI election

15 Ridings that elect the top two candidates in each riding giving you 30 MLAs. A preference ballot is used and is counted a second time with only the two elected candidates from the first count being tallied. They get one legislative vote for each ballot they have the lower number on. Each MLA has one vote in regular session where the work of the Legislature is done and when procedural motions are voted upon. For this last Legislature that’s 15 Liberals and 15 Conservatives. The Legislative Assembly is operated on a non partisan bases. In legislative session each MLA has one vote for every vote they received on the second count of the ballots. The Assembly goes into legislative session every Thursday afternoon at 1 PM to vote on any legislative motion to be passed. Any bills approved then go to the Lieutenant-Governor for royal assent on Friday morning.

Try it before you buy it. In this next Legislature form the Assembly advisory council. The council membership is the top two candidates from each riding giving you 54 members. In the regular vote each member has one vote. The regular vote advises the Legislative Assembly on procedural motions, election of the Speaker, and Assembly rules. In the legislative vote of the council each member has votes equal to their popular vote. All candidates not on the council transfer their popular vote to one of the two members from their riding. All votes do count! The legislative vote advises the Legislative Assembly on votes to adopt legislative motions.

The Legislative Assembly elected in 2011 the council would have been 27 Liberals with about 52% – 59% of the legislative vote. The Conservatives with 27 members with 41% – 48% of the legislative vote. A few years ago I mailed all the PEI MLAs letters (the Canada post kind) detailing the dual electoral system. Got back one reply.