PREFERENTIAL VOTING

Taranaki Daily News, 15 October 1934, Page 4

PREFERENTIAL VOTING

Judging from the latest Australian election results, the system of preferential voting adopted in the Commonwealth works out quite as 'unsatisfactorily as the “first-past-the-post” system which obtains in New Zealand. Preferential voting was intended to interpret more definitely the actual will of the electorate. It was claimed that with a multitude of candidates for one seat a minority vote often carried an election, and that by the distribution of votes in order of preference—that is to say, by eliminating first the candidate receiving the lowest number of votes and distributing his votes among the others until only two remained—a true result of the poll would be obtained. The Australian Senate election has resulted in 33 antiLabour victories, with only three Labour Senators to represent a body of opinion that according to results shown in tire Lower House elections was at least twothirds as great as that in favour of the anti-Labour forces. The Prime Minis-

ter, Mr. J. A.' Lyons, admits that an electoral system that has given the party he leads such an overwhelming victory in the Senate must be wrong in principle. He proposes to set up a committee representative of all political parties in Parliament to see if a more equitable system of voting can be evolved. It is a curious fact that so many electoral reforms that appear in theory all that can be desired show most unfortunate results in practice. New Zealand tried the second ballot and was glad to eschew the experiment, and in Australia the perfect method has evidently not yet been evolved. The Dominion’s present system works out unfairly at times, but those who would reform it in a hurry may consider that the recent experience of Australia is worth contemplation. The desire of all democracies is that the will of the people shall prevail, and that its interpretation at the ballot-box shall be as complete as the wit of rnan can devise. That ideal does not appear to have been reached in Australia, but that is no reason why endeavour to bring it within reach should not continue.