Indirect election

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Indirect election is a process in which voters in an election do not actually choose between candidates for an office but rather elect persons who will then make the choice. This process is used in many union elections and sometimes in professional, civic, and fraternal organizations, as well as in the election for President of the United States.

In the United States, the President is elected indirectly. Voters elect a slate of candidates for the Electoral College, which in turn elects the President. A similar process has been used in the past in emerging democracies, i.e., South Korea and the Republic of the Philippines, but it was soon dismantled in favor of direct election. Only in the United States has a process of indirect presidential election persisted for over two centuries. The Senate was elected by the legislatures of the states until 1913, when the Thirteenth Amendment instituted direct elections.

In France, election to the upper house of Parliament, the Sénat, is indirect, the electors (called "grand électeurs") being local elected representatives.

Prime Ministers are elected indirectly in parliamentary systems. While members of the parliamentary body are elected directly, it is their votes, usually cast for their party leader, which determine who becomes Prime Minister. However, a Prime Minister is more a representative of the parliament, a primus inter pares (first among equals), who has just one vote, just like any other member of parliament, and therefore does not have the power that presidents have. Such a system tends to make all elections more about national issues than is generally the case in the U.S., where it is very commonplace for some districts routinely to vote, often by a large majority, for a Presidential candidate from one party and a member of Congress from the other. Then again, a parliamentary system usually also has separate elections for lower governments (such as city or province). So the same system may be used at different independent levels, possibly even with different parties.