Quotations for Consideration

“Though liberty is established by law, we must be vigilant, for liberty to enslave us is always present under that very liberty. Our Constitution speaks of the’ general welfare of the people: Under that phrase all sorts of excesses can be employed by lusting tyrants to make us bondsmen.” – Marcus Cicero

“War has Rules, wrestling has Rules, but Politics has no Rules.” – Ross Perot

“Those we do not trust as guardians of our children, why do we make them guardians of the Nation” – Shiv Khera

“Which of the …candidates would you want your daughter to marry. (Judge by character, and not money or anything else.)” – Ross Perot

1.Electoral System/ Voting Methodology

All voting methods have inherent biases and flaws that end up with results not accurately representing the true choice of the voters. Trying to refine the results only ends up with other unintended flaws Such distortions can only be countered by encouraging discussions and arriving at what at that time seems to be the most equitable decision for all and allowing for improvements through correction of errors as may be required in future elections. To allow for such corrections to be really effective and representative of the people’s will, it is essential that all elections be held together. ONE NATION ONE POLL.

Proportional representation system: in which seats are allocated in proportion to the voters in some manner or the other, not only manifests paradoxes but also, encourages and embeds divisive tendencies of religion/caste etc. Seeking recognition in some way or other as a different group and thus seeks to be allocated representation.

Many studies have demonstrated the impossibility of fairly apportioning the votes in a proportional system of election. Proportional representation is not very sensitive to changes in voting and often leads to coalition Governments and compromise policies. Though compromises are certainly preferable to immediate violence, they are generally bad as they allow everyone to disown all negative effects. Also, in a proportional representative’s system what counts most is changes in the opinion of the third largest party and other smaller parties that might together hold the key to forming a government or policies. The resulting coalition Governments and compromises give disproportionate power and voice to such parties and makes the Government less sensitive to changes in the Vote / Opinion as it allows it to escape direct responsibility for any wrong policies or decisions with the excuse of the imperative of a ‘Coalition Dharma’. To reduce the stranglehold, or the undue influence of small parties on government formation, requires a better election procedure that culls out most of such Parties at the initial stage itself.

The ‘First past the post’ system, that we presently have, allows a small change in the vote to produce a relatively large change in the election result and can easily lead to a change of Government. Also, in such a system, with multiple candidates, a result is possible even if a candidate has less than about 20 percent of the votes. This leads to groupism and divisive attitudes.

The all or nothing of such a system of election and the consequent low representation of small parties makes the overall system sensitive to small changes in public opinion and a shift away from the ruling party can easily result in it losing power completely. Also, this may again end up giving the third and smaller parties a strangle hold or undue influence on Government formation or selection of policy. Thus, ensuring that, the intention of replacing any ‘wrong’ policies many times ends up making matters worse. However, in order to make this system more representative of the voter’s choice and more effective, we need to incorporate into it a way of rejecting the wrong candidates and, ensuring that the winning candidate has over 50 percent of the electoral vote, through a bye-election, and with a way of recalling them it found unfit after the election.

Thus, to ensure that each of the candidates elected in a constituency is really the choice of the majority of the electorate in that constituency, a runoff election between the First and Second, or even Third candidate should be held, if no-one gets over 50 percent of the vote in the First election. This not only eliminates frivolous candidates but also, encourages a more inclusive attitude in them, because now the candidate would need to also, seek to be the second choice of other voters. This also, ensures that the final winning Party actually has a majority vote of the electorate including support from smaller minorities (thus making their policies more inclusive and acceptable), and therefore can take sole charge and thus be held responsible for the policies and decisions of the Government. In-case these policies are found unsatisfactory by the electorate the Party will be replaced at the next election. This is a costly and time-consuming option as each Bye-election takes times and adds to the costs.

Preference voting or Ranked choice voting: – This is the best way. It is an improvement on the ‘First past the post’ system with a run-off election and is similar to what is now done for Legislative Council elections, or as being done in Australia and other countries. In such a system the voters select two or even three candidates as first, second and perhaps even the third choice. If any candidate gets over 50 percent of the first-choice votes,he/she wins. If no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote, then the candidate with the lowest first choice votes is eliminated and his/her supporter’s second choice is added to the counts of the other candidates. If there is still no majority winner, the next lowest candidate is again eliminated and his/her votes added to the rest of the candidates and so on until one candidate first passes 50 percent.

This also, makes the campaign more civil and inclusive as each candidate tries to add to his / her votes by also, seeking to be at least the second or third choice of the other voters, groups or minorities.

Compared to the ‘First past the post’ vote system with a run-off vote, the preference vote system saves time and money of a second run-off election and is easily determined in today’s computer age. In addition, it should be noted that it also, has dramatically improved the turn out wherever it has been tried.

Entrenched racial divisions, caste and religious divisions, or various traditions of political violence may still distort the positive features of the ‘First past the post’ voting system even though the runoff election, to elect a candidate with a majority, will greatly reduce such divisions. However, considering all the above, the preference voting system would be the best and most effective option to elect a candidate with a majority, without the hassle and horse –trading of another run-off election.

Any Party that does not garner at least five percent or even ten percent of the seats and any independent must be called upon to either join one of the larger Parties for the duration of the term or be disqualified.

This will ensure that the elected Party will be able to function properly for the entire term.

Also, in these days of accessibility to Social-media, anyone can easily ensure that his/her voice is heard and hence, the need for Independents and marginal Parties no longer has any rationale.

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