ELECTORAL SYSTEM CRITICISED

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 51, 23 November 1928, Page 13

ELECTORAL SYSTEM CRITICISED

Sir, —A careful study of the recent election results shows two facts worthy of reflection to the serious student of democracy. Firstly, the number of members elected to Parliament by a minority of votes in their electorates. Secondly, the failure of the party system to produce a sound, stable, and homogeneous Government. . On the first point, the list of election results shows that 37 members have been elected to Parliament with a minority of the votes in their electorates. This state of political affairs can only lead to instability of government and is not truly representative. The number of candidates cannot be limited to only two parties, so urgent reform is required in our electoral system. The system of preferential voting, with a single transferable vote, would make all members truly representative of the people. In regard to the second,

the party system has failed, as It eventually must, because it is a violation of the fundamental principles of sociology; namely, the principle of intelligent cooperation and mutual aid. With the party system we have parties, contending for positions of power and authority instead of members elected as representatives of the people to govern and administer the affairs of the country. Those who struggled for centuries to establish our system of representative parliamentary government did so for two reasons, firstly, so that we may be governed and led by the wisest and the best, and, secondly, so the people would be in the position to protect their own of members going to Parliament as followers of this or that leader, members go there as representatives of the people who sent them, first of all, to protect the rights and liberty of the people from aggression and to administer the affairs of the State —then we would have a truly democratic assembly. The Ministers of ths Executive Council could be elected by a full House at the first sittings of Parliament by means of preferential voting, not because they belong to a party, but on their ability and capacity to fill the positions; such method would be more civilised than the “spoils to the victors” method. If the members could not elect a sound and stable Government from among themselves, they have failed in the task they undertook and have proved themselves unfit to govern and incapable of the position to which they have been elected. Our task at present is not to “make the world safe for democracy,” but make representative democracy safe for humanity. Democracy has failed in some countries, and the ■ only alternative is chaos and a military dictatorship.—l am, etc., W. W. MARKLAND. Lower Hutt, November 21.