Parliamentary vote is the process by which a law is passed or rejected in a parliamentary system. Parliamentary systems are found around the world, especially in countries that were influenced by the British political tradition such as India, Canada, and Australia. In these countries, voters usually elect members of their party to represent them in a legislative branch called a parliament or legislature. The parliament then chooses an individual to be its head of government, known as the Prime Minister, and forms an executive cabinet. The role of the Prime Minister is often blurred or merged with the legislative branch, and there may be no separation of powers as there is in the United States presidential system.
Most parliamentary democracies have very few checks and balances to prevent the legislative body from becoming dysfunctional. Legislative bills are made by majority vote of the parliament and must be signed by the head of state, although the head of state does not have a de facto veto power and can only return the bill to parliament for another vote.
Some parliamentary systems use proportional representation, but many use a closed party list system where voters have two votes on one ballot paper—one for a constituency member and one for a party list candidate. Voters can rank candidates in order of preference and each candidate that receives a number of first preference votes equal to or higher than the quota for their region is elected as a constituency member. Any surplus first preference votes are then transferred to the second preference and so on until one candidate receives a majority of the remaining first preference votes.