The study of mixed-member electoral systems concentrates on the effects of mandate type on representational roles and constituency orientation. Single member district (SMD) representatives are expected to be more constituency-oriented than those elected from party lists. The paper aims to enrich our knowledge on the effect of mandate type in a post-communist county with respect to its persistence through time on the one hand and member seniority on the other. The main idea of the paper is that this effect changes within the post-transition era due to the learning process that Members of Parliament (MPs) and parties have to come through. Secondly, not only collective encounter with democracy and a new electoral system, but personal political experiences are likely to influence how members perceive the difference between SMD and party list mandates. The paper analyzes pooled cross-sectional data covering MP perceptions of representational roles between 1990 and 2010.
