WE’VE ALL HEARD the term PR-STV, or proportional representation with a single transferable vote, but how exactly does it work?

Ireland’s system of voting is often lauded as a fairer and more representative way of electing officials compared with how other countries conduct their elections, but with that comes more nuance.

On this week’s episode of The Explainer, Laura Byrne is joined by Gavan Reilly, political correspondent with Virgin Media News and co-host of The Group Chat podcast. to delve into how exactly PR-STV works.

Do you need to vote for every candidate? What happens to your second preference if your first preference is eliminated? And can you bring in notes to help you remember how you plan to vote?

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This episode was put together by presenter Laura Byrne, senior producer Nicky Ryan and executive producer Sinéad O’Carroll.

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This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.