Democracy down under

Following the UK another bulwark of bipolar politics has fallen as Australia’s next government will be inevitably a coalition either between Labour, the greens and a couple of independents or the conservatives and a couple of independents. 

Significantly there is still a good chance that Labour will form the next government despite winning a minority of first count votes. It was only thanks to the second preferences of  green party voters that Labour could be in a position of leading the next government. 

Australia does not have a perfect electoral system.  It is still very difficult for third parties to enter the lower house of parliament as to do so they have to win whole districts as the greens did this time round in Melbourne. But this shortcoming is balanced by a senate elected through proportional representation.  In fact the greens now hold the balance of power in the senate with nine seats of their own.

Had Australia adopted a German style electoral system the election would have resulted in a stable red-green coalition rather than in pork barrel negotiations with independents.  Despite being a two party system, pork barrel politics is not alien to Malta considering that Gonzi's government is effectively a coalition with a number of backbenchers some of whom had to be roped in through "appointments".

But the most interesting aspect of Australian politics is that those  who vote for a third party still have a voice in determining which MP is elected from their district and thus which party forms a government.  A similar system (AV)  will be adopted in the UK if this proposal is approved in the forthcoming referendum.

In Malta we do have a single transferable vote system which allows voters to give their first preference to a small party and their second preference to a big party. 

But effectively over the years these voters have lost any choice in determining who effectively governs the country.  This is because of constitutional amendments which give the relative majority party an automatic seat majority in parliament whenever only 2 parties are elected in parliament.   This would allow a party elected with say just 40% of votes to rule despite being opposed by 60% of the population.

Let us not forget that in Malta we already have a minority government as the Nationalists got less votes than Labour and third parties combined.  Would it not have been more democratic if the government was chosen on the basis of the second preferences of the nearly 2% who voted for third parties?

A forward looking electoral reform would be to give weight to the second preferences given by people voting for small parties not elected to parliament in determining the choice of government.  In this way the party elected to government will be the one with a relative majority after the second preferences of people voting for parties not elected to parliament are counted.  In this way in the case of people voting for a party which is not elected to parliament, their number 2 given to a party elected to parliament will count as a number 1.

In this way everyone would have a chance of choosing the lesser evil while being free to use his first preference in any way he or she likes.  This would still be a far cry from a fair electoral system based on a national threshold.  But it could be a timid first step in freeing voters from the shackles of a stagnant duopoly.