Direct electionis a system of choosing political officeholders in which the voters directly cast ballots for the person, persons, or political party that they desire to see elected. The method by which the winner or winners of a direct election are chosen depends upon theelectoral systemused. The most commonly used systems are theplurality systemand thetwo-round systemfor single-winner elections, such as a presidential election, andparty-list proportional representationfor the election of alegislature

Anindirect electionis anelectionin which voters do not choose betweencandidatesfor an office, but elect people who then choose. It is one of the oldest forms of elections, and is still used today for manypresidents,cabinets,upper houses, andsupranational legislatures. Presidents and prime ministers can be indirectly elected by parliaments or by a special body convened solely for that purpose. The election of the executive government in mostparliamentary systemsis indirect: elect the parliamentarians, who then elect the government including most prominently theprime ministerfrom among themselves. Upper houses, especially of federal republics, can be indirectly elected by state legislatures or state governments. Similarly, supranational legislatures can be indirectly elected by constituent countries' legislatures or executive governments.