Just one problem: our system is NOT Majoritarian. In a majoritarian system, a candidate has to win more than 50% to win a seat. Examples are Alternative Vote and instant run-off. In our system, a candidate can win with less than 50%, which makes our system a Plurality system.
This is one of the most common mistakes about electoral systems. I see it repeated in newspaper articles on a regular basis. Another popular misconception is that “ranked ballot” is a system, when in fact it’s a type of ballot that can be used in either a Majoritarian or a Proportional system.
Unfortunately, these mistakes are not harmless. The first leads to people thinking our system is better than it is. Polls find that many people wrongly believe that a candidate needs to get 50% or more of the vote to win in our system. The second leads people to assume that Ireland’s system is not proportional, and therefore to undercount the number of countries that have PR.
If we are ever going to get a decent electoral system in this country, we’ll need to stop the spread of misinformation about PR and start getting the facts out.