I, like all people who have not devoted the time and
resources to study our electoral process, am relying on the
Citizens' Assembly to closely analyze the systems, and recommend a
system which optimizes the elements of fair representation,
accountability, and 'understandability', while encouraging greater
voter participation and not allowing the elected house to
degenerate into the Italian or Israeli model, for example.
A mixed model [MMP] is probably most appropriate,
involving proportional representation, ranked voting, and a
mechanism to discourage cronyism among core party hacks who might
put their names up for at-large representation, and ride in on
party popularity. There has to be constituency level
accountability, to prevent the disgraceful spectacle of mass
sign-ups and distorted riding association candidate
nominations.
I sense that there needs to be a threshold percentage of votes
before a member can be elected. I would hate to see 10 parties get
1% each of the total vote in a 100 seat house, and get 10 seats. A
base for representation might be about 8%.
How you put this all into a package, I do not know. But your
discussions should centre on practical solutions, which improve on
the woefully inadequate first-past-the-post system, without
introducing new sources of unfair representation.
Good luck.
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