2005

KABUL, Sept 17 - The single non-transferable vote (SNTV) system used in Afghanistan's elections can produce a wide range of vote spreads, the difference of votes earned between the candidates winning seats.  

In the 2005 election for Afghanistan's lower house of parliament, the Wolesi Jirga, some of the vote spreads were very wide, such as in Kabul, where the difference between the top vote earner and the lowest successful candidate was 50,646 votes.  

As we've noted before in previous analysis, one effect of the Single-Non Transferable Vote system, used in all of Afghanistan's parliamentary elections to date, is that candidates often win with very small shares of the vote in their respective provinces, since voters only receive one ballot for a multi-member constituency and coordinated party voting is very difficult.