Voting interest (or voting power) in business and accounting means the total number of votes entitled to be cast on the issue at the time the determination of voting power is made, excluding a vote which is contingent upon the happening of a condition or event which has not occurred at the time.

This notion is different from economic interest that refers to a percentage of all the equity issued, including preferred stock, warrants, and so on. Ownership of more than 50% of voting shares gives the right of control and consolidation. In special cases, control is possible without having to own more than 50% of voting stock. For example, if agreed, shareholders may pass control to a chosen one owning much fewer shares (for example in the case of the two petroleum companies, MOL Group and INA - Industrija nafte).

Company ABC has 1,000,000 ordinary shares and 500,000 preferred shares outstanding.
Company XYZ buys 700,000 voting shares and 100,000 preferred ones.
Therefore, its voting interest is (700,000/1,000) 3%.

Yair Tauman (born January 20, 1948) is a Leading Professor of Economics at State University of New York, Stony Brook and the Director of the Center for Game Theory in Economics at Stony Brook. He studied in Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he obtained his Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Mathematics, both under the supervision of Robert Aumann, and his B.Sc. in Mathematics and Statistics. His areas of research interests are game theory and industrial organization. He has published, among others, in Econometrica, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Economic Theory, Quarterly Journal of Economics and RAND Journal of Economics.

Andrew J. Petter is currently President of Simon Fraser University. He was formerly the dean of the University of Victoria's law school. He served briefly as Attorney General of British Columbia under the New Democratic Party government of Ujjal Dosanjh. Petter has written extensively about the role of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and its effect on government powers and decision making.

Petter pursued undergraduate studies at Notre Dame University College in Nelson, BC and at the University of Victoria before receiving an LL.B. from the University of Victoria in 1981. Upon graduation he won the Law Society of British Columbia gold medal for the highest standing in his class. He subsequently received an LL.M. from Cambridge University in 1982 where he studied on a Commonwealth Scholarship and graduated with first class honours.

Petter was a legal adviser to the Constitutional Branch of the Saskatchewan Department of Justice. Petter then taught at Osgoode Hall Law School between 1984 and 1986. He then joined the University of Victoria Faculty of Law in 1986.

Nabila Ramdani is a Paris-born freelance journalist of Algerian descent who specialises in Anglo-French issues, Islamic affairs, and the Arab World.

Ramdani holds an MPhil in International History from the London School of Economics (LSE), and an MPhil in British and American History and Literature from Paris 7 University.

She has an Agrégation (France's highest teaching qualification) in English and has held teaching positions at Oxford University (Jesus and Oriel Colleges), the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Paris 7 University.

Ramdani began her career in journalism covering the 2007 French presidential elections for a number of UK newspapers, and working as a commentator for BBC TV and radio. She writes regular columns for The Guardian, London Evening Standard, and the New Statesman.

She also produces features and news stories for a wide range of other British publications, including The Daily Telegraph,The Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail,Mail on Sunday, and The Sunday Times. Nabila’s work also appears in Middle Eastern newspapers including The National,Gulf News and Daily News Egypt, and she has contributed to the French publications Le Parisien, Marianne, L'Express, Le Monde, and Le Figaro. Ramdani's articles are syndicated worldwide.