The runoff is a second vote between the two most elected candidates in the first instance.
Ballotage is a term that derives from the French word ballottage . The notion refers to the second vote that is carried out in certain electoral systems, in which voters must choose between the two candidates who received the most votes in the first round. The runoff election is an electoral institution that belongs to French law, in its constitutional and electoral branches.
Also called the second round , the runoff is carried out when none of the candidates for public office reach the minimum number of votes required or the difference with their opponents required by the electoral law. In this way, the two most voted go to this second electoral round, while the other candidates are no longer part of the process . Citizens, therefore, can only choose in the runoff between the two candidates with the most votes in the previous instance.
As a curious fact, we should point out that the original term in the French language ( ballotage ) derives from a verb that can be translated as "vote using balls" ( ballotter ).
Examples of runoff
Suppose that , in a country When the elections were held, the Democratic Party candidate garnered 46% of the votes, followed by the representatives of the Liberal Party ( 39% ), the Conservative Party ( 6% ) and the Revolutionary Party ( 4% ), in addition to 5 % of blank votes . According to the legislation, after this first round a runoff is held between the candidates of the Democratic Party and the Liberal Party . In the runoff, the candidate of the Democratic Party gathers 70% of the votes, while the candidate of the Liberal Party reaches 30% . In this way, the candidate of the Democratic Party becomes the president.
An example of a real runoff took place in the 2015 Argentine presidential election. In this nation, voters had to choose between Mauricio Macri and Daniel Scioli in a runoff. The result favored Macri with just over 51% of the votes.
The runoff is also known as the second round.
History of the second electoral round
Regarding the history of the second round of elections, we can say that it arose in 1852 when Napoleon III established the Second French Empire . From that moment on, it was applied in the Third Republic and - with special force - in the Fifth Republic (in 1958 ) through the French Constitution .
The countries in which the ballot can be used to define an electoral process are many and among them are Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Costa Rica, Slovakia, Finland, Bulgaria, Portugal, Ukraine and Poland . An even longer list contains countries that only resort to this measure in certain cases: Russia, Czech Republic, Syria, Turkey, Nigeria, Morocco, Cape Verde, Egypt, France, Iran, El Salvador and Ecuador , among many others.
Types of ballot
It is possible to distinguish several types of ballot, among which the following stand out:
- No barrier : only the candidates who have received the most votes are taken into account and the winner is decided in a second round with a simple majority . An example in France took place during Charles de Gaulle 's mandate for the Assembly elections.
- With a simple access mechanism : when none of the candidates achieves a result greater than 50% (this is called an absolute majority ), a runoff is held between the two who have received the most votes. This rule can be seen in the majority of Latin American countries that apply the second round of elections.
- With compound access mechanism : for the ballot to take place, certain requirements must be met. For example, in addition to exceeding a certain percentage of votes , the candidate must have a certain number of points above his opponent.