Tuesday 30 September 2014

The bad news is that first past the post is oppressive

The nature of the first-past-the-post voting system is that someone can become a Member of Parliament without achieving a majority of the votes cast, merely a plurality. This means that votes cast for losing candidates are eliminated from the electoral process to a greater degree than with a proportional system. If we assume that the eliminated candidates were in disagreement with the winning candidate then the result is that there will be more consensus and less antagonism as a result, in parliament. Since for people to be free requires that they are able to safely disagree, this results in less freedom for the people. If the minority candidates which 'lost' the fptp election are nevertheless promoted to parliament in a proportional manner this means that (because a greater extent of the people are represented) there is more freedom.

The first-past-the-post system blocks voters from parliament which results in less freedom.

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