[EM] Request comments on MMP?

[Dgamble997 at aol.com]

John,

Personally I don't like MMP (or AMS as it called in the UK ) much as a 
proportional system.

I've never seen the virtues of  using single member districts and having one 
constituency member to represent you. If you approach your one member with an 
issue that concerns you and your one member is unsympathetic to your point of 
view you are stuck. Much better to have 3 or 5 members from different parties 
who represent you one of whom is likely to agree with your point of view.

I dislike the way MMP creates two classes of member -those with 
constituencies and those without.

Also strategic or tactical voting can be used to manipulate the results under 
MMP. In the London Assembly elections conducted under MMP I considered voting 
for one party ( my sincere first choice ) on the list whilst voting for a 
different party in the directly elected seat ( my second choice) in order to harm 
a third party ( the one I really don't like). In the end I didn't because the 
opinion polls showed the Conservative and Labour parties so close it wouldn't 
have any effect. The opinion polls were right as regards the result it 
wouldn't have had any effect. This is not true in all situations. The Scottish 
Assembly is also elected by MMP. I believe a post by James Gilmour shows how 
potentially the Labour party in the Glasgow region could have run as Labour in the 
constituency seats ( all of which it was guaranteed to win ) and run an 
"unconnected!?!" list in the name of the Co-operative party and thereby obtained 
extra seats.

David Gamble
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