VOTES FOR THE PARTIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19171, 10 November 1925, Page 7

VOTES FOR THE PARTIES.

Sir, —The absurdity of the efforts to explain awav the Government's success m the elections is illustrated by the conflicting arguments of Mr. J. Rea and " Disfranchised." The former contends that every vote was given for party. That is the whole foundation of the case for proi portiorial representation. "Disfranchised," however, claims that under that system's | grouping he would have had the opporI tunity to vote for a candidate in whom jhe had confidence. As he believes Tliafc | there were tens of thousands of electors | in his position—disregarding party con- ; siderations for personal merits—now can he say that they aLso were disappointed? On the face of things thousands of people ignored the claims of , the Labour and the National parties to vote for Reform candidates. His statement that under P.R. at least 15 candidates of all shades of opinion would have stood for the single Auckland electorate is not particularly % illuminating. There were 20 candidates, representing a considerable variety of opinions, and I cannot think of any one electorate in which the > contrast between the views of the contestants was not sufficiently defined to enable an intelligent elector to' make a positive decision. The suggestion that the ideal candidate of "Disfranchised's" hopes would be elected under P.R. is not convincing, because the system is not designed to select individuals but to secure a mathematical proportion between party votes and party members. I notice that neither of these , correspondents attempts to meet the point that 50 Reform members secured absolute majorities with a margin more than covering the deficiencies in the five minority elections. The fundamental fact that is always ignored by the electoral theorists is that there are only two answers to a plain question. The Labour Party includes proportional representation in its platForm, but its constitution provides that in the event of disagreement the annual conference over-rides . the Parliamentary party. Why not decide such questions by proportional voting? Electob.