9,000
8,000
5,333
4,500
4,500
4,000
3,500

The lowest of these numbers, 3,500, becomes the common divisor, or the
"electoral quotient." The number of votes cast for each list is
divided by this quotient, and the resulting numbers (fractions being
disregarded) indicate the quota of seats to which each of the parties
is entitled. In the case in hand the results would be:

16,000 divided by 3,500 = 4 Catholic seats
9,000 divided by 3,500 = 2 Liberal seats
4,500 divided by 3,500 = 1 Socialist seat
3,500 divided by 3,500 = 1 Christian Democrat seat

*599. The Making up of the Lists.*--Lists of candidates are made (p. 545)
up, and the order in which the names of candidates appear is
determined, by the local organizations of the respective parties. In
order to be presented to the electorate a list must have the
previously expressed support of at least one hundred electors. A
candidate may stand as an independent, and his name will appear in a
separate "list," providing his candidacy meets the condition that has
been mentioned; and it is within the right of any organization or
group, political or non-political, to place before the electorate a
list. The power of the organization responsible for the presentation
of a list to fix the order of candidates' names is not a necessary
feature of the proportional system and it has been the object of much
criticism, but it is not clear that serious abuse has arisen from it.
Candidates whose names stand near the top of the list are, of course,
more likely to be elected than those whose names appear further down,
for, under the prevailing rules, all votes indicated in the space at
the head of a list form a pool from which the candidates on the list
draw in succession as many votes as may be necessary to make their
individual total equal to the electoral quotient, the process
continuing until the pool is exhausted. Only by receiving a large
number of individual preferential votes can a candidate be elected to
the exclusion of a candidate whose name precedes his.[765]

[Footnote 765: Valuable books dealing with
proportional representation in Belgium are G.
Lachapelle, La representation proportionnelle en
France et en Belgique (Paris, 1911); F. Goblet
d'Alviella, La representation proportionelle en
Belgique, and La representation proport