I thought this deserved a separate thread, because it’s mostly suggestion and speculation. Obviously I don’t have all the answers or the knowledge to make an informed decision at the moment, but this is how I believe Government, particularly General Elections, should be managed:
Voting should be a legal necessity, so there is a proportional representation, and all votes should be counted, even votes for losing parties. However, the major difference in general elections would be would be that every seat in Parliament must be filled. There can be no empty benches etc. Then, every region is worth a set number of seats, determined on the distribution of the total population around the country (so it would be determined by percentages of total population). So whichever party wins that region wins that many seats in Parliament. Then the political party in power can be decided by which one receives the highest amount of votes across the entire country, as determining it by the number of seats won isn’t a proportional measurement.
Just a thought… Please leave suggestions or comments…
Voting is compulsory in Australia. That country does not appear to be notably better governed than anywhere else. I know it is a seriously minority point of view, but maybe we should be restricting the franchise. What was wrong with the pre-1832 position when only educated people or wealthy people (who pay most in taxes). Why give the vote to stupid or feckless people? Why should somebody be able to have a say in government just because they happen to have not been aborted during pregnancy. It doesn’t make sense.
Comment by chris horrie — 6 May, 2008 @ 10:56 pm |