Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Scottish Parliament election

You must make arrangements for calculating and allocating the regional seats1 as soon as practicable after you receive the statement of regional results and notification of the elected constituency candidate from each CRO.2

You must calculate the total number of votes given for each political party and individual regional candidate by adding together the votes given for each registered party or individual regional candidate in all constituencies in the region.3

You must also calculate the number of constituency seats won in the region by each party.4

You must allocate the seats within the region based on a calculation using the modified d’Hondt formula.5

The modified d’Hondt formula sees the number of votes cast in the regional contest for each party or individual regional candidate divided by the number of constituency seats they have gained plus one.

The first regional seat is allocated to the party or candidate who has the largest figure after you have performed this calculation. To allocate the second to seventh regional seats, the calculation is repeated, but each time the number that the regional vote figure must be divided by will be the total number of seats already won (regional and constituency), plus one.6

The seats each party is entitled to are filled by the candidates in the order in which their names appear on their party list.

Individual regional candidates will win a seat if their total is the highest at any stage in the calculation. If they win, they are removed from the rest of the calculation as they cannot win a second seat.

Once an individual candidate has been allocated a seat, or a party has been allocated as many seats as there are candidates on its list, they are removed from the calculation for the allocation of the remaining seats.

The following table gives a worked example:

If two or more parties and/or individual candidates are tied at any stage where a seat is being allocated, see our guidance on equality of votes at the regional contest.7

Seats won by each political party are allocated to candidates in the order in which their names appear on the list submitted by that party at nomination.

Where every candidate on a party list is allocated a seat, that party is removed from any further calculations of the remaining seats.

Provisional results of seat allocation and recalculations

You must show each individual regional candidate and their election agent and the election agent for a party standing in the region (or, in their absence, a candidate on the party’s list) who are present on conclusion of the calculation, the provisional result of the allocation and offer them the opportunity to request that you make a recalculation before you declare the result.8

You may refuse any such request if, in your opinion, the request is unreasonable.9 You should be transparent in showing your working and should explain the way the calculation works to the candidates and agents present.

You should also explain that candidates and agents are not permitted to request a recount of votes at this stage.10