IMPROVING GOVERNANCE THROUGH A BETTER ELECTORAL SYSTEM

There are two major electoral systems currently used worldwide. These are the single-member district system and the proportional representation system. The former is a winner-take all system whereby political districts consist of geographical subdivisions, the constituents of which get represented by the candidate garnering the highest vote. The latter, on the other hand, use multi-member districts whereby several candidates win in one district as determined by the proportion of votes the party receives. A party receiving 50 of the votes in a 10-seat district would get five out of those ten seats.

What makes the proportional representation or the PR system better than the single-member district system There are three main advantages of the PR including ensuring minority representation, eliminating gerrymandering and the relatively higher vote turnout whereby no vote gets wasted as opposed to that in a single-member district system.

Minority representation is best served under the PR system since it allows a representation based on the proportional votes in a district. In other words, a 20 vote for one candidate gets a 2-seat representation in a large district where 10 seats are allowed. Thus, avoiding an outcome in which some people win representation and the rest are left out making each and every vote count (Amy, 2002). Since PR is essentially a multi-member district, it is even possible to have as many representations for several groups of minorities within a single district. Take for example a case where a 10-seat representation is allowed and the womens sector comprising 30 of the votes cast voted for a party with a womens rights advocate as candidate, the gay constituents comprising 20 of the votes cast voted for a party with a gay advocate as candidate, while another 20 votes went to the party advocating agricultural reform, and the last 30 of the votes cast was received by the party advocating health insurance reforms. Amy (2002) believes that many in the voting rights community including Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier, have concluded that proportional representation would be the best way to give minority voters fair representation.

Another advantage of the PR system is that it eliminates gerrymandering or the practice of apportioning in one geographical districts the portion of the population which would probably turn out a more favourable result for a party or a candidate in the elections. This practice is a basic disadvantage that is often utilized as a cheat mechanism in a Single-member district system. Gerrymandering has little or no use in the PR system, hence, it is almost certain that incumbent parties will not resort to this practice.
The fact that voters know that the votes they cast would not go to waste has been significantly associated with the high turn out of votes in a PR electoral system.  This is not hard to understand since as voters, we would know that it is always a consideration in the exercise of our right to vote that the vote we cast will more or less get counted by choosing a candidate who has a higher chance of winning. Otherwise, even if we like a party or candidate, the fact that we know that there will be a low turn out of votes for that party or candidate would make us opt to vote for a second choice that will most likely have a higher chance of winning. This is normally the set back in a winner take-all single-member district system resulting to a low turn out of votes.

The above-discussed are just several of the many advantages that the PR system has proven in western democracies. It is gaining a worldwide impact and has managed to provide more likeable changes in the electoral system in the countries which have adopted it. There is no reason why the United States or the remaining western democracies still using the single-member district system should not shift to the better electoral system, that is, the proportional representation system. After all, an electoral reform towards better governance is something that everyone should be advocating for.

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