South Africa
The provision for awarding a bonus seat for the winning party in each of the 22
districts is in place to give an edge to a party which is close to getting a majority in
Parliament, but in practice, the bonus seats have been distributed between the
two major parties and a regional Tamil party, making the bonus an ineffective
policy instrument.
The Executive Presidency has provided stability to governments in the past, but its
excessive powers has led to abuse of that power. Powers of the President have
been curtailed through the 19th Amendment to the Constitution but a total
abolition is also on the table.
Bhutan and countries with British Commonwealth heritage (i.e. Bangladesh, India,
Maldives, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore) continue to follow the FPP method
while countries in East Asia have adopted Mixed-Member Parallel systems.
However the PR component in such systems is nominal at ~20% in some cases.
Nepal recently adopted a method where 55% of the seats are awarded on a PR
basis and the other 45% returned by FPP contests at constituencies.
Indonesia An example closer to home
The authors inquiry to IFES Chief of Party for Indonesia and Sri Lanka at the
International Foundation for Electoral Systems elicited the following response
regarding the electoral system in Indonesia:
Thank you for your email to David Ennis and Beverly Hagerdon, IFES Chiefs of
Party for Indonesia and Sri Lanka, regarding information on electoral system
reform in Asia.
As you might know, Indonesia switched to an open list system (with districts of
roughly the same size as Sri Lanka) with the expectation that it would foster
greater control by voters. However, for various reasons, the open list system
seems to have contributed to vote buying and a weakening of party discipline.
The Indonesian parliament is currently debating alternatives to the open list
system, but has not yet adopted changes. One of the key issues it is debating is
the size of electoral districts. Indonesia has both national and regional
parliaments and the national parliament has already been reduced from 3-12 to
3-10 seats per district, but regional parliaments still have 3-12 seats per district. A
proposal is being considered to reduce the size from 3-10 to 3-8 seats per district
for national parliament. The range is obtained through an empirical study based
on the representation of the political diversity of Indonesia.
Interestingly, the electoral system used for regional councils is the same PR-open
lists but the local councils seem to elect members on a FPP basis.
If Sri Lanka used a similar system, voters in each province in Sri Lanka will be
presented with a closed list of candidates from each political party contesting in
the province and the all the voter has to do is to vote for a party. For example if
three parties contest in a province and the seats are distributed proportionately
as. say, 35, 30 and 3, among the three parties, the highest ranked such number of
candidates from each party list are returned as MPs. Presently under discussion is
such closed list system but for constituencies returning three to five MPs such
that the MPs are closer to the voters.
Of the 400 members of the National Assembly in South Africa, half are selected
from national lists and the remaining half are selected from regional lists. The
regional elections too are held according to a PR-closed list method, but local
council elections are held according to an MMP system.
It is unfortunate that our Parliament has been discussing electoral systems since
2003 without seeking adequate outside expertise. Electoral reforms
considerations in Sri Lanka are driven by formulas and ways of optimising
formulas without a deep understanding of the concepts behind those numbers or
good practices across the world.
Currently we have legal provisions for an MM-Parallel system enacted for local
councils and the old PR system is still in play for Provincial Councils and
Parliament. An MMP system for the Parliament is on the agenda, but the
document put forward by the steering committee is just another set of numbers
without an in-depth analysis situating such numbers in a larger electoral reforms
framework.