An election method to replace MMP

[IH Farrow]

The real difficulty with MMP is not the "overhang mandate" that can mean additional politicians, but rather the fact that it is a non-ordinal system that requires voters to accept candidate rankings on Party Lists submitted by the political parties.  

MMP is a politician's dream, since losers in the constituencies on the Saturday (in New Zealand) can be resurrected through the Party Lists on the following Monday.  Party List casual vacancies do not need to be replaced through by-elections, but can simply be replaced by their political party.  Party List politicians are also not bothered by the needs of constituents.

MMP is a fraud for voters since the only vote that really counts in the composition of the Parliament is the Party List vote (since a win in a constituency means one less Party List seat entitlement) while the system requires the completion of two ballot papers, leading the voters to believe that they have 'two votes'.

The system suggested by Donald seems extremely complicated.  I suggest that most of the issues he seeks to resolve are easily addressed in elections for the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly and the Tasmanian House of Assembly by STV proportional representation using the Hare Clark voting system.  The only downside in these elections is the perpetuation of the Australian anachronism of compulsory voting.

Regards

Ian Farrow	
e-mail: 	ifarrow at aip.com.au
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