Closed list

In closed list systems, each political party has pre-decided who will receive the seats allocated to that party in the elections, so that the candidates positioned highest on this list tend to always get a seat in the parliament while the candidates positioned very low on the closed list will not. However, the candidates "at the water mark" of a given party are in the position of either losing or winning their seat depending on the number of votes the party gets. "The water mark" is the number of seats a specific party can be expected to achieve. The number of seats that the party wins, combined with the candidates' positions on the party's list, will then determine whether a particular candidate will get a seat.

List of countries using closed list systems

Proportional representation

• Algeria
• Angola
• Argentina
• Armenia
• Benin
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Cambodia
• Colombia (depending on the party)
• Costa Rica
• Dominican Republic
• Equatorial Guinea
• Guatemala
• Guinea-Bissau
• Guyana
• Hong Kong (1997–2016)
• Israel
• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyzstan
• Lithuania (1992–1997) (Seimas and municipalities' councils)
• Moldova
• Montenegro
• Morocco
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Nicaragua
• Niger
• North Macedonia
• Norway
• Paraguay
• Portugal
• Romania
• Rwanda
• Serbia
• South Africa
• Spain
• Sri Lanka
• Timor-Leste
• Togo
• Tunisia
• Turkey
• Uruguay
• Wales (from 2026)

Mixed electoral systems

Mixed electoral system using closed lists for the proportional component

• Andorra
• Hungary
• Germany (mixed-member proportional representation)
• Italy
• New Zealand (mixed-member proportional representation)
• Philippines
• Russia
• Scotland
• Taiwan
• Wales (1999–2026)

Majoritarian representation

Party block voting (general ticket) with a closed list

• Côte d'Ivoire (party block voting in multi-member districts)
• Singapore (party block voting in multi-member districts)
• United States (electoral college)