Submission GRAYSTON-1047 (Online)

I support the MMP proposal, currently and successfully in use in New Zealand and elsewhere.  The STV system is, in my view, entirely unsuitable as is any proposal which divides urban and rural voters. [1 page]

Friends: I have kept abreast of your work, and wish you well as it comes to a decisive moment. My understanding is that three options will shortly be presented, with one to be chosen before the referendum.

The present system, in my view, is entirely discredited. Its malfunction is the reason the commission undertook its work.

The STV system is in my view entirely unsuitable. It is complicated to explain to ordinary voters; it has led to constitutional crises in other places; and its record of electing women and minorities is deplorable.

(I understand another proposal, which would divide urban and rural voters, is also being presented. This, of course, would only make worse the cultural divide which already exists between urban and rural, and, in effect, divide us into two potentially hostile provinces.)

I therefore wish to express my support for the MMP proposal, currently and successfully in use in New Zealand and elsewhere.

I wish you well in your deliberations and will follow them carefully.