[EM] [Election-Methods] [english 94%] PRfavoringracialminorities

[Raph Frank]

On 8/22/08, Juho <juho4880 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>  In Finland where the number of candidates is relatively high some less
> obvious candidates may have some trouble getting in to the lists but on the
> other hand some well known figures (that have become popular (and respected)
> in other areas than politics) tend to get offers from multiple parties to
> join their lists (even as an independent candidate on their list, without
> becoming formally a party member).

Would they be expected to vote with the party if they do end up getting elected?
Is the theory that they will pull in more than 1 seat's worth of
votes, so it is worth
having them on the list no matter what they do?

Under PR-STV, the whole vote management thing means that parties cannot
just let their candidates run completely independent campaigns and also that
the number of candidates run must be controlled based on tactical
considerations.

In my view, it is one of the weaknesses of PR-STV.  It means that a party
cannot just run lots of candidates and let the voters decided without
weakening its position.  Likewise, voters cannot just rank the candidates
of the party any way they like (or at least they are encouraged to rank
a specific candidate first choice)

I like the rule where they use the ballots from the general election to decide
how to fill casual vacancies.  This creates an incentive for the parties to
run spare candidates so that casual vacancies will be filled by the same party.