[EM] It is folly to make false claims for any reform.

[Donald E Davison]

Greetings,

     It is wrong to make false claims for any proposed reform.
     Some election reform people make false claims for Proportional
Representation(PR) methods. When these claims are not realized, enough
people will be willing to remove their support of the PR method so that the
method may be voted out as the area's election method. The people will lose
good representation just because of a false claim, that should have not
been made in the first place.

     PR is an improvement, it gives representation to more people, which
makes government more representative of the people, but it does not cure
the common cold, nor make politicians accountable.

     In 1993, the people of New Zealand voted into law a PR election
system. It appears that the people were told at the time that this new
system would somehow have politicians keeping their promises, that the pace
of radical economic reform would be slowed, that the dominance of major
political parties would be kept in check, that the new system would bring
integrity back into politics, and that the members would work together for
the good of the country.
     These are all false claims. No election system can do any of these
things, which is now being realized in New Zealand, with the result that
the people are now talking about doing away with the system.

     It is folly to make false claims for any reform.

Regards,
Donald

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 (Claims of the New Zealand MMP from the text of Yoko Kobayashi)

Complex NZ voting system questioned as poll nears.  [Abridged]
   By Yoko Kobayashi

   MMP was adopted following a referendum in 1993 on the back of growing
dissatisfaction with the way politicians elected under the British-style
first-past-the-post-system did not keep promises.

   Some MMP supporters had even hoped to slow the pace of the radical
economic reforms which characterised the policies of the two major right
and left leaning parties from the 1980s onwards.

   By allowing smaller parties to be represented in the 120-member single
chamber parliament, the hope was to keep in check the dominance of major
political parties and bring integrity back into politics.

   However, in reality, smaller parties have often occupied a position
where they tilt the balance of power and in the 1996-98 period the tiny,
populist New Zealand First party brought instability to a coalition
government that critics said rendered it unable to carry out significant
policy moves.

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   |                         Q U O T A T I O N                         |
   |  "Democracy is a beautiful thing,                                 |
   |       except that part about letting just any old yokel vote."    |
   |                            - Age 10                               |
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