[EM] Request for opinion

[robertas pogorelis]

Hello,


I am new to the list, and glad to discover that its so active. I am a 
political scientist currently based at Leuven, Belgium, though originally 
coming from Lithuania.

I have been asked by the working group of the Lithuanian Parliament to 
produce an expert opinion about possible changes to the electoral system of 
local (municipal) councils in Lithuania. As myself I am not sure which 
option is the best, I just though I would give you a chance to contribute 
to the development of a new democracy by asking for your opinions, which 
would finally help me formulating mine.

Current system: PR, one municipality-one constituency, 21 to 51 members 
elected from each (depending on the number of inhabitants). Vote for a 
party list, plus an optional preference vote for (up to three) candidates 
on the chosen list; the party votes determine the number of seats for each 
party (Hare quota); the preference votes determine the final list order.

Perceived problems:

- no scope for voting for independents (desirable at the municipal level; 
in society, there is very strong anti-party disposition in general);

- high fragmentation, shaky coalitions;

- proliferation of extremist parties; a leaders popularity tends to 
attract votes for his party, and facilitates the election of additional 
candidates from the same list, who are often neither popular (as seen from 
preferential votes) nor very educated;

- a bit strange to have open-list PR at the municipal level and a mixed 
system at the national one; on the other hand, most European countries 
employ some sort of PR at the municipal level. PR could strengthen parties 
at grass-roots; however, in Lithuania this seems to have facilitated 
forming cliques and cartels unaccountable to the public;

- no territorial representation with such large districts (desirable at the 
municipal level).


Possible solutions:

-         forming smaller districts (but this would be costly, so I would 
presume the parliament may wish to retain the current ones). In your 
opinion, judging from the above, would this be a strong necessity?

-         Replacing PR with SNTV or some kind of Approval Voting. But can 
Approval Voting be recommended in such large districts? Any countries 
employing this system for local elections?

-         STV would sound good as well but again, can it be applied in 
such large districts? Would it be worse than the current open-list PR?


I would appreciate your opinions very much (if possible, by this weekend).


Many thanks,

Robertas