Note4Student:

After string of victories of BJP in all major elections The Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, headed  by senior congress leader Anand Sharma called for debate on reforms in adoption of First past the post system and also suggested a dual system where separate votes for a candidate and a party could be considered. India being one of the world’s largest democracy any change or debate on election methods process is very important from our exam point of view.

Introduction

India adopted Parliamentary form of government with representative democracy in which legislatures are elected by First Past The Post system (FPTP) type of election.

Under this FPTP system in India:

Entire country divided in to constituencies now 543.

Each constituency elects one candidate

Candidate who gets highest number of votes declared elected than others. Even if votes share less than 50%.(Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) massive election victory is the claim that they got 31.84% of vote share and  won 282 seats that, therefore, 69% of those who voted did not vote in favour of the winning party)

This system is also known as Single Member Plurality or Plurality Voting system in which winner takes it all. And all other votes are disregarded.

Analysis

Positives of having FPTP

1. Firstly it is praised for simplicity and easy to understand. No specialised knowledge of elections and politics required. During parliamentary debates members of constituency assembly representing Scheduled Caste and General Hindus rejected the system of proportional representation bcz of its complexity and difficult to understand  for illiterate population.
2. It retains link between the constituency, Member of Parliament (MP) and voter.
3. Fosters representation and ‘Geographical Accountability’.
4. It allows voters to choose between persons rather than just between parties or balances both party and candidate. So voter asses performance of individual candidate and party.
5. Gives chance to popular candidate to get elected even without party backing.
6. Cost effective.
7. Ensures stable government in such a diverse country.

Negatives aspects of FPTP

1. It may exclude minority parties from representation in Parliament or Councils if they don’t have concentration areas where their candidates can win. Lesser women MPs, MLAs as they don’t have area of concentration.
2. It will encourage development of ethnic parties i.e. political parties base their plans, policies in favour of particular clan, religion, region, etc.
3. Since there is delimitation of boundaries, cases of gerrymandering can occur.
4. FPTP system results in Two Party system. E.g. BJP and Congress.
5. It leaves a large number of wasted votes which do not go towards the election of any candidate.

Alternative to FPTP

Proportional Representation

Seats are allotted to the political parties according to their vote share. Here voter vote for party not for candidates.

Advantages of PR system

1. Faithfully translate votes cast into seats won.
2. Encourage or require the formation of political parties.
3. Give rise to very few wasted votes, depending on the threshold.
4. Facilitate minority parties’ access to representation depending on the or the district magnitude.
5. Encourage parties to campaign beyond the districts.
6. Restrict the growth of ‘regional fiefdoms’.
7. Make power-sharing between parties and interest groups more visible.

Disadvantages OF PR System

1. Gives rise to coalition governments and a fragmented party system i.e. Less stable government.
2. The inability of the voter to enforce accountability by throwing a party out of power or a particular candidate out of office.
3. Difficulties either for voters to understand or for the electoral administration to implement depending on voter’s education and training of poll workers.

Way forward

1. On the lines of European countries Dual system of election model need to be studied in which voters cast vote both  to Political party and candidate.
2. recommendations of the Law Commission’s 170th and 255th report should be implemented:
3. A hybrid of both first-past-the-post and proportional representation should be tried.
4. Both the reports have suggested that 25% or 136 more seats should be added to the present Lok Sabha and be filled by Proportional Representation.
5. Need to study PR system on pilot basis.

Conclusion

The election process and system should safeguard the following principles: more representation, transparency, verifiability, fairness, eligibility to vote, free, secret and universal suffrage, and accessibility.

No electoral system is perfect. Each one favours one or more of the objectives of elections – but not all of them. Broadly speaking, PR systems favour accuracy of representation; While FPTP favours stability. Majority systems tend to stress strong and stable government. Different electoral systems produce different results. There is no one objectively “best” system. Need to debate, discuss, to evolve more suitable election system.

Q1. What is First past the post system? How it is different form Proportional representation? Is it time for India to shift from FPTP system to PR system? Critically analyse.

Q2. Electoral system failed to achieve India as a more representative democracy? Critically analyse this statement and give your views with recent examples.