This is how the Webster method works for the allocation of seats in the 2023 sectional elections

The Webster seat allocation method will be the formula used for the 2023 sectional elections, in which Ecuadorians will be able to elect prefects, mayors, rural and urban councilors, members of parish councils and members ofl Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control.

This February 5, when counting the votes, the Webster method will be used due to the reforms in the Democracy Code, in force since 2020, where it was established that elections in multi-person lists be decided in this way, since gives more representation to minorities.

National Electoral Council is preparing to develop an interconnected system that alerts the origin and destination of the money that enters the electoral campaigns

How does the Webster method work?

With the Webster method, when counting the total votes for each list, this value is divided for the odd numbers 1, 3.5, 7 and more, until reaching the number of seats available.

“Due to the dispersion of political organizations that participate in each election and with the purpose of achieving representation before the municipal councils, or metropolitan in the case of Quito, it is applied by saying that it favors minorities and with this the representation is balanced”, explains the Dean of the Faculty of Social and Legal Sciences of the SEK International University, Esteban Ron.

More than 60,000 candidates will dispute the 5,000 dignities of local governments in the votes on February 5

In the previous method, known as D’Hondt, the votes were divided for consecutive numbers (1,2,3,4,5 and more) so that the parties that captured the majority of the vote obtained the seats.

“D’Hondt’s method, having continuous divisors, means that the minority votes do not reach said division, so the application is complex”, indicates Ron. “Having such a number of subnational organizations, they would never have representation,” he says.

(YO)