ELECTORAL REFORM

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 285, 29 August 1935, Page 8

ELECTORAL REFORM

In the face of the evidence on‘every hand that a nieastnc of electoral reform in the shape of preferential voting is a matter of urgency if anything like fair representation is to he secured m the next Parliament, the Government states that it has no intention of doing anything in the matter. A glance at the list of candidates in the field to date shows that in most constituencies there will be three-cornered contests, and in a good many the electors will have to weigh the merits of four or five aspirants for Parliamentary honours. In the circumstances it is highly important that the mind of the general electorate should be given unmistakable expression, and that can only -he possible by a preferential system of voting. With a plethora of candidates for a seat, the least worthy of them may achieve a fortuitous victory as the result of the vote-splitting. A general election is not like a sweepstake, in which the result is a matter of pure chance. It is an opportunity given to the nation of declaring its will as to those who are to govern it, and if its will be that only the best men offering should be favoured, the present first-past-the-post system is the most effective means of frustrating it. The Democrat Party has at least perceived the wisdom and justice of a change from' a system that, in the conditions under which the next election will be contested, can only produce confusion and dissatisfaction. Why is the Government so faint-hearted about it?