Denmark goes to the polls in local elections on November 17th, but as a result of electoral alliances between parties, they cannot be sure where their votes end up.

A system of electoral alliances between parties means that a vote for the Danish People’s Party can end up with the Social Liberals, or a vote for the Social Democrats may end up with the Danish People’s Party – depending on where in the country a voter resides.

A Zapatera opinion poll for 24timer shows that 45 percent of the electorate is unaware that political parties and local lists can enter into electoral alliances so that surplus votes for one party, can be transferred to another party. This is hardly surprising since parties only need to publish their alliances in a small advert in a local newspaper, or in a notice at the polling station.

“Electoral alliances are entered into with little regard for ideological boundaries. Unfortunately, information is not particularly good so a lot of people don’t realise that their votes can help other parties to get an extra seat – and that is a problem,” Aarhus University Political Science Professor Jørgen Elklit tells 24timer.

Majority against
According to the poll, 52 percent of Danes are against votes from one party voting in a politician from another party.

“A seat in local elections costs about four percent of the vote. So the system is a type of guarantee that small parties have a chance,” says University of Southern Denmark Electoral Researcher Ulrik Kjær.

Elkit, however, says that the alliances benefit the larger parties most.

“So they are the ones most opposed to any change in the electoral law. If you changed allocation methods along the lines of the general elections, you’d get a better distribution. Alternatively, there could be a system under which you tied your vote to a party,” Elklit says.

Unjust system
While the Liberal, Social Democratic and Socialist People’s parties say they don’t want to change the alliance system, the Danish People’s Party Chairman of the Parliamentary Local Council Committee Hans Kristian Skibby says he would like to see the alliances abolished.

“Basically this system is completely unjust because it stamps on democracy. I will not exclude the possibility that we will present a bill to abolish electoral alliances,” Skibby tells 24timer.