Among the fifty most populous nations in the world, the only two countries in which only two political parties are represented in the nation’s legislative lower house are the United States and Nigeria. If “two-party system” is defined to mean a nation with only two parties represented in the national legislature, then it is clear that the “two-party system” has been rejected by governments and voters all over the world.

Among the fifty most populous countries, only one country bans all political parties and holds no legislative elections whatsoever: Saudi Arabia. Only one of the fifty most populous countries has non-partisan elections for the national legislature: Iran. Although political parties, both legal and illegal, exist in Iran, the election system is non-partisan.

Two countries ban all political parties except the ruling party: China and Vietnam. The May 1 2015 printed Ballot Access News will have a chart showing the number of parties represented in each country’s lower legislative body, although the chart will only include the 50 most populous countries.

On April 9, the Montana House State Administration Committee passed SB 279. It had already passed the Senate. It says that when a vacancy occurs in a U.S. Senate seat, there should be a special election to fill the vacancy. Current law says the Governor appoints someone who serves until the next regularly-scheduled congressional election.

On April 10, the Montana Senate State Administration Committee passed HB 454 by 7-0. The bill says parties no longer must elect precinct committeemembers in a primary. Because Montana has open primaries, and because the Republican Party does not want non-members of the party helping to choose party officers, the party has a lawsuit pending in the Ninth Circuit to change the open primary, at least relative to elections for party officers. But if HB 454 passes, the Republican Party can no longer argue that it is being forced to use an open primary for that purpose.

The bill was amended in the committee to provide that county central committees could appoint precinct representatives. Thanks to Mike Fellows for this news.