The Gisborne Times SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1935. A SIGNIFICANT RUMOUR.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12610, 20 July 1935, Page 4

The Gisborne Times SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1935. A SIGNIFICANT RUMOUR.

: The suggestion that Jit is intended to alter 'the electoral law before the General Elections' amounts to one of tlic most' interesting, political rumors for g long time. , Tt seems that what is under consideration by Cabinet is a. 'proposal tiiat-some form of preferential voting should be adopted. Questioned on the matter, the actingPrime -Mini-stemdid not deny that thero had 1 been some discussion "on the part of Ministers on- the stidiject. So far, ■ however, no concrete proposal' has, •• it appears, boon put; forward.- . It is, df 'course, ■■ not difficult to 'suggest why tliere is rt moye.' to replace ..the hfirst- past the post”, system of voting. Labor, on • the ono hand, is -solid; nort-Labor, bn the oilier hand, is somewhat badly divided. • The advent of. the. Democrat Party, has made all the difference to ilicf Government’s prdiiectt id- cohhectibii with the forthcoming appeal to the voice of the people.. It is, indeed, 'not going too far to suggest

tliaV' iihder' tho"present Voting;system.' • the- putting forward of a DemtJr crait;;candiclate, as well as a National Dedei ati.on aspiyaht, would, in, very, tna : ny instances, simply result in making a gift, of the scat to the Laborito. In all the ciroum stances, it can,' wo think, be taken for granted that a preferential system of voting will be introduced into this Dominion during next . session. > Only •during the war period has. anything ofj;th© kind been in force in New ZeaIncl.a. .It. may 'bo recalled that, iwlieri ,thc soldiers were ; . abroad,. the. • political ooloiv,()fiall ,the candidates;was,;not. known to them,,' Many . Jof / them, therefore, voted in the dark as- -to the actual candidates but; . signified ■that they.; desired.their to be east in favor of the party which they supported. As it turned out, in quite a number of cases, a candidate dklnot 'stand for the party favored by the soldier voter with the result that it had to be determined which of the other candidates. Reform or Labor should bo credited with the votes. It may, perhaps, have < been forgotten' .'that Reform nominated Liberals; the Liberal; Party Labor, and the Labor party Liberals.- What how remains to ho soon is what'would happen in the .awarding of preferences if a preference voting system should lie tried out in its entirety in. this Dominion. Labor will see little to choose between in the case of- Democrats and National Federation candidates, but it is almost eerta.ii that the Deniocra-ts will secure the lion’s share of the Labor preferences. Democrats in the main will, one would imagine, -cast their preferences against Labor. In the ease 'of. supporters of the Government, trey will be fairly unanimous in making the Democrat their second choice. If this should prove to be the position, a preference voting system is bound to help non-La.bor. The Government may, however, ‘have to yield a number of 'seats to the Democrat Party, which it is believed, is prepared to spend a lot of money on the electoral contests. The fact that the Government has been forced to consider the point as to the wisdom of changing the voting system is indicative that there is ahead perhaps the most exciting Genera] Election ever held in the Dominion.