Mixed Membership Proportion

Introduction

Different countries have different electoral systems, which they user to elect leaders during the voting period. The mixed – proportional electoral system is an electoral system that is constantly gaining interest from many countries. Seemingly, this electoral system mainly involves two voting options for the voters. The voters have to vote for their representative in the legislature and also vote for a political party of their choice. The mixed – ship proportional electoral system allocates the seats in the legislative assembly according to the percentage votes obtained by the political parties in the general election. In this paper, I will address Canada’s current electoral system. I will also explain why it is possible or not possible for Canada to adopt the Mixed – ship proportional electoral system.

Mixed - Proportional (MMP) System retrieved from http://www.mec.org.mw/files/column%2040%20Mixed%20%20proprtional.pdf

The article highlights that the Mixed – Proportional Electoral System is a system that tends to combine the aspects of the majoritarian and the proportional representation systems. This system is also known as the Top - Up - System or the Additional System (AMS).

Under this system, part of the seats is allocated using First - Past - The - Post system (FPTP). In the latter, the political parties and the candidates are voted directly by the electorate in which the seats are allocated to whoever gets the majority votes. After that, the proportional system is used to allocate the remaining system to counter the lack of proportionality caused by the FPTP system.

The article highlights Lesotho as one of the countries that institutionalized the use of the MMP electoral system in 2002. The same system was used on February 28, 2015 elections in which 80 of the 120 seats were allocated using the FPTP system and the remaining 40 shared using the proportional representation system. After the election, only four parties got to share the 80 seats while the other six parties obtained seats based on the proportional representation method.

The article highlights the advantages of the MMP system such as inclusiveness, the reduction of the wasted votes, and the accountability of the elected candidates to the electorate. It also highlights its disadvantages such as the fact that it is too complicated for some s of the electorate to understand and gives room for gerrymandering due to boundary determination. In the use of this system, there must be a by – election to fill a vacancy. It might also result in strategic voting and the fact that since the electorate would not directly elect the candidates on the list, some political parties might use them to reward the parties who finance them.

Mixed- Proportional Systems (MMP) retrieved from https://www.constitution.ie/AttachmentDownload.ashx?mid=985abd97-1bc2-e211-a5a0-005056a32ee4

The article highlights that this system seeks to provide a fair representation of all parties in parliament in proportion to the votes they win. Eventually, this system gives smaller parties the opportunity to win some seats. Just like the name suggests, the system is a mixture of two separate electoral systems including the First – Past – The – Post system mainly used in the United Kingdom and the proportional representation list system that is used by most European countries.

Apparently, this system provides two different types of MPs. Almost half of the parliament are elected in single – seat constituencies while the rest are elected on party lists in larger constituencies. It is one of the best systems since it produces MPs that focused on constituency development and those committed to National political issues.

Voting using this system gives the voters two options; to vote for the party lists and the constituency candidates. Apparently, Germany was the first country to adapt this system after the World War II. However, other countries such as New Zealand, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Scotland have recently adopted the use of the same system.

Seemingly, the article explains that this system offers different variations in the voting process such as the choice of the two systems to mix, the choice of whether the system can be fully or only partially proportional, the proportion of the parliamentary seats that should be allocated to each party, how closed or open the ballot should be on the list part of the system, and whether the candidates should be allowed to run both as list candidates or as constituency candidates.

Personal Position

In my opinion, I support the proposal that Canada must implement the use of the Mixed – ship proportional electoral system. Currently, Canada uses the first – past – the - post and the plurality systems during their elections. By using these systems, it is clear that the voters only vote once for the candidate of their choice. By the end of the voting process, only the candidates with the highest votes in their respective constituencies are allowed to enter the parliament. Over the years, it has been noted that the use of this system has many inconsistencies. The system is mostly relevant in the constituencies where only two candidates are running because either of the candidates will obtain votes more than 50 percent of the votes cast. However, it is different in constituencies with more than three candidates running. In such cases, candidates get elected by very few votes below 50 percent of all the votes cast.

The current electoral system in Canada has resulted in many disparities when it comes to representation in the parliament. Since only the candidate with the majority votes represents the whole constituency in the parliament, the voters whose party runs against the winning party barely remain with any representation. Eventually, this situation renders the votes of most of the voters in the opposition party useless. Canada has tried to make electoral reforms, but it has not yet arrived at a more neutral electoral system that would account for all the votes cast and the interest of all the voters who take part in the electoral process. For ll these reasons, I am confident that Canada should give the mixed – ship representation electoral system a try.