Sunday 20 December 2015

12.3% v 12.9%


The results of the Spanish election are coming in and, reading the main article on the BBC website, I'm officially confused. 

This is what it presently says (a screenshot):


However things eventually turn out (and Twitter is presently suggesting that far-left Podemos is in third place, well ahead of the centrist Ciudadanos), what's puzzling me here is that this BBC article [one of the lead articles on the BBC News website at the moment] presently says that "anti-austerity Podemos" is on 12.3%, well behind the main centre-right and centre-left parties, and that the "liberal Ciudadanos party" is "in fourth place" with...er...12.9% of the vote. 

Isn't 12.9% more than 12.3% though? (If Rachel Reeves from Countdown is available, I would love to discuss the matter with her to make sure). Wouldn't that put Ciudadanos in third place and Podemos in fourth place?

I have a strong feeling this BBC report will prove wide of the mark - though even if it doesn't it's still perplexing.

Of course, Spain's electoral system might well be non-proportional. That might account for the BBC's early rankings.

Still, it doesn't look as if pony-tailed Podemos will come out clearly on top after all, as the BBC spent so much time anticipating might happen in 2014 and early 2015.

Time will (shortly) tell though.

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