1. To avoid the temptations for single
issue groups to form parties, and to elevate their originators into
the legislature, not to govern, but to heckle, use the platform
there when it should be elsewhere, I suggest the bar be set
reasonably high for entry into the legislature.
Eight percent of the total votes cast across the
province should entitle a party to one seat in the legislative
assembly, plus any seats earned by the normal first past the post
constituency contests. At 10%, the party would be
entitled to 2 seats (plus) from there it would be 3% increments,
for example, a party with 16 or 17% of total votes would be
entitled to 4 seats, plus any earned by first past the
post. The reasons are to avoid the coalition type
governments in which each minor group can hold a veto over the
heads of the major governing party -- just think of the
impossibility of implementing a coherent set of policies in a
country such as Israel. Italy and India are other
examples where they could end up playing musical chairs. Pity those
poor countries!
2. If a minor party does not win any by
constituency majority, then the 2 or 3 seats allotted by the method
in 1. above are not given to the party's governing body
to assign -- oh, no! The tallies of the votes cast for
each party member in each constituency are compared on a percentage
basis, with all votes cast in constituency Q being the 100%
yardstick for the party candidate there. Whichever party candidate
garnered the highest proportion in his/her constituency
would be the first one "in" and the next highest would be the
next one "in ", and so on until the number (2,3 or 4 etc.) had been
elected from those constituencies where either the candidate or the
party was particularly popular or strong.
3. In this way a constituency (let's
call it Q) could have 2 representatives in the house, the one
elected by majority and the 'leading' minor party candidate by the
party with strength in Q. Sometimes they would be in concert and
other times not. That's no problem, that's democracy at
the grass roots.
4. Beware of allowing too many parties
to form and be represented in the legislature. There should be not
only the 8% entry bar given in 1. above, but there should be a
registration procedure requiring a petition of a very high number
of qualified voters, taken within a 6 month period, plus a serious
registration deposit of say 2 million dollars which would be
forfeited if no seat is won in the next following election. There
are always the dangers of too many unrelated options confusing the
less sophisticated voters. I was in Czechoslovakia during their
first free election, and there were 22 parties clamouring for
support. Happily they were lucky, many of the leaders were quite
unfamiliar except in their own small bailiwick. They chose Vaclav
Havel, a playwright who had been a voice of impudent but serious
lampooning of the communist regime. The country has gone on from
success to more of the same -- now only 3 or 4 parties.
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