MINORITY RULE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 119, 23 May 1925, Page 13

MINORITY RULE

THREE-CORNERED POLITICAL

CONTESTS

DR. CHAPPLE CONDEMNS PRESENT

SYSTEM.

(BT TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ABSOCUTIOK.) GISBORNE, This Day. During the course of an" interview to-day with a "Times" representative, Dr. W. A. Chappie, ex-M.P. 'for. Dumfriesshire, touched on three-cornered political contest problems, the prospect of a three-cornered contest for -the"- Franklin seat, and of a similar outlook for the General Election. It raises once again an interesting point, said Dr. Chappie. The basis of democracy is majority rule, but as a rule in these cases more vote against the winning candidate than for him. This, of course, means minority rule, the very negation of democracy. If it happens in a Parliament it must lend to persistent discontent, and at the same time weakens, the authority of the Government in legislation and administration, if it is conscious 'of the fact that in the country the majority of the electors have actually voted against it. There is only one way of obviating this difficulty, said Dr. Chappie. New Zealand once triad the second ballot, but it fgnominiously failed, and by the common consent of all parties the Act was repealed before the next election. The right thing to do is to adopt an alternative vote under which every elector numbers the candidates in the order of choice, namely, 1, 2, 3, and so on. ~The returning officer is instruoted to give every candidate the full value of all preferences cast in his favour, and to announce the. majority candidate who wins the seat. There was never such a great opportunity for the new Prime Minister to carry a great reform in,the New Zealand elect-oral system; and provide against all the evils of the threecorner contests and minority: rule.