The parliamentary vote is the mechanism that makes law in many nations.

While the United States is best known for its presidential system, most of the world uses a parliamentary form of government. Parliamentary democracy is a system where citizens elect Members of Congress or parliament to represent them, and the majority forms the government. The parliamentary vote makes the law and appoints ministers, all of which are ultimately accountable to the people through periodic elections.

Under this system, the main political parties select candidates to run for office based on their party’s policies and their personal qualities. Voters rank these candidates in order of their preference (across the country or across regions), and the candidate who receives the most votes in each region wins. If no candidate achieves the necessary 50 per cent of first preference votes, the candidates who received the fewest are eliminated and their second preference votes are redistributed to the remaining candidates. This process continues until one candidate secures more than 50 per cent of the total first preference votes, and is then declared elected.

In most parliamentary systems, laws are subject to a check on the legislature’s powers, and if it is found that an act is unconstitutional or breaches a constitutional clause then it may be declared invalid. In addition, a government that loses the support of a substantial portion of its governing body is called to account through a “no confidence” vote in the parliament. This allows a new parliament to form and appoint a new government that has the confidence of the people.