There are mainly two electoral systems when it comes to democratic dispensations: the first-past-the-post system, and the proportional representation system. Everything else is simply an extension of one of these two.
The former is practised in certain countries, including Pakistan, India, Canada, and several others. This system is quite flawed on two counts; it can give government to a party winning the majority in the house even when it does not necessarily have the majority of the popular vote. In essence, the only thing matters in this system is the number of constituencies won by a party.
The bigger flaw, in my opinion, is that it keeps voters shackled to a party that they may not like or agree with. They are forced to vote for the ‘lesser evil’ because they have to go for the so-called strategic voting to stop the ‘bigger evils’ getting through. If they do not vote at all, they would end up wasting their chance of doing even that much.
In most countries, including Canada, major parties favour this first-past-the-post system because it favours them. In other words, odds are loaded in their favour in such a system at the cost of the people. That is why Canadian prime minister broke his promise to change the system to some modified form of the proportional representation system. He had made the promise during his first campaign in 2015.
I assume he broke the promise because he could foresee what change it may bring about for the future of his party.
It would have ended the pattern of so-called strategic voting, which usually favours the liberals in Canada. In proportional representation system, the whole country is considered a single constituency, and political parties are allocated seats proportionate to the percentage of popular votes received from across the country. People vote for the party of their choice. They are not forced to vote for candidates within their own constituencies.
In Pakistan, the first-past-the-post system has its own specific flaws, making it a country that is far from being a true democracy at all. Changing the electoral system to proportional representation may do the trick as it will give voice to the marginalised groups that currently have no voice in parliament.
The problem is that the main political parties in Pakistan will never agree to shoot themselves in the foot by actually promoting more representative democracy in the country, as they like democracy only when it favours them.
SHAKEEL NIZAMANI
CALGARY, CANADA
