Reform of the Electoral Process should come in five parts.
-
Voting age set at 16. This would also include
adding political science a requirement in High School Curriculum to
run through grades 11 and 12. This is a simple legislative
process.
-
Fixed election terms established at 9 years.
This is a simple legislative process. By extending terms to 9
years, it's possible for the Legislature to think and plan long
term.
-
Multiple choices for the electorate. This is
achieved by creating zones of 3 electoral districts grouped into
one zone. Each zone would include the same number of MLA seats
which all the electorate in the zone would be voting to fill. This
would mean candidates would have a broader range of electorate
political viewpoint to involve in the election process. Likewise
this satisfies the immediate issue of increasing voter
participation at the beginning of each new term with 3 seats to
fill per electorate at election time.
-
Continual collection of data on how MLAs vote throughout
their term of office cross-referenced against data on electorate
approval of their votes. This process is
intended to offer the electorate an ongoing incentive to be a part
of the parliamentary process throughout the full 9 year term. This
process is achieved by creating an electronic methodology by which
every MLA is required to register their vote for public referral.
At the same time a separate electronic methodology is created by
which the electorate in each zone accesses that registry, by SIN
number and personal 4 digit secret code, and registers approval or
disapproval of their 3 MLAs votes.
-
MLAs who fail to meet a minimum performance level as per
Item.3 at year 3 and 6 through the 9 year term lose their seat and
a by-election is held. This performance level is defined
by both approval and voter participation to create a driving force
for MLAs to conduct serious conferencing with the electorate in
their zone before voting to ensure their vote is positive with
their electorate and not some artificial party line or personal
ideology. This also creates incentive to encourage voter
participation. Thus failure to represent the broader electorate
throughout their term will cause an MLAs political career to end in
as short as 3 years.
NOTE: If the first 2 terms prove a successful model with the
electorate generally satisfied with the process as indicated by
fewer and fewer by-elections at each 3 year point specified in
Item.4, then towards the end of the second term would be a good
time to look at eliminating general elections entirely. Since MLAs
not supported by their electorate would be removed, and those MLAs
who choose to resign would be replaced by the bi-election process
general elections would become redundant. Likewise, government
would become an ongoing process rather than driven by some
arbitrary time frame and remove the election/re-election driver
from the mindset of MLAs and their supporters.
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