ABSTRACT
Free and fair elections are one of the cornerstones of a liberal parliamentary democracy. Democracy and elections are closely interwoven. An election is the basis upon which democratic, constitutional procedure rests; its purpose is to offer a mandate to govern for a limited period of time. Elections not only give citizens the right to pass judgement and to express their political views, they also legitimise power and keep a check on the people's political representatives. The American author David P. Conradt states in his respected standard work The German Polity that 'most political scientists and political leaders assume that the electoral law will affect the character and structure of its party system and hence its politics'. The electoral system itself, via the way in which it acts as a mechanism for allocating parliamentary seats, can influence the way the results of an election are interpreted, and this in turn may affect the nature and development of the party system.
