He may give all or any of his votes to the same candidate.
The reports of the local returning officer at each polling station shall state the number of votes obtained by each candidate. (7) A Central Board (Commission de recensement) shall collect the reports of the local returning officers, and ascertain the electoral total of each list, and allot the seats among the lists in proportion thereto.
The electoral total of a list is the sum of the votes given to the candidates whose names appear thereon.
(8) For the purpose of allotting the seats, each electoral total shall be divided by the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on up to the number of vacancies, and as many of the resulting quotients as there are vacancies shall be arranged in order of size, beginning with the largest. The smallest of these quotients so arranged, corresponding to the last seat to be filled, shall be used as the common divisor, and to every list shall be allotted a number of deputies equal to the number of times which its electoral total contains the common divisor.
(9) Within each list the seats shall be assigned to the candidates who have the largest numbers of votes; in case of an equality of votes, the eldest candidate shall be elected.
(10) If two or more lists have an equal right to a seat, it shall be allotted as between the competing candidates to that one who has received the greater number of votes, and if those votes are equal the eldest candidate shall be elected.
(11) The unelected candidates of each list with the greatest number of votes shall be classed as first, second, and third substitutes (suppléants), and so on.
If any vacancy shall occur by death, resignation, or otherwise, the substitutes shall be summoned in their classified order to fill the places of the elected members of the list to which they are attached, provided that at the time of summons they are in the enjoyment of their political rights.
(12) If more than six months before the end of a Parliament, the representation of a constituency is diminished by one-fourth and there is no substitute who can be declared elected, bye-elections to fill the vacant seats shall be held in that constituency. (13) The present law shall extend to Algeria. Nothing in this law shall affect the representation of the Colonies.
NOTE.—Since the introduction of this Bill several other proposals have been considered by the Commission du Suffrage Universel. The draft Bill proposed in the last report (March 1911) is not based so strictly upon proportional principles as the measure given above.