What is ‘First Past the Post’ system?
A first-past-the-post voting method is one in which voters indicate on a ballot the candidate of their choice, and the candidate who receives most votes wins.
Discussions on “different systems of elections”
- An all-party Parliamentary panel is exploring “different systems of elections”, other than the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system
- FPTP is currently followed in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls
Why is the PSC exploring different systems of elections?
- According the PSC, in recent years the FPTP system is not the best suited system as is evident from the recent Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh
- Many Opposition leaders have reminded the BJP that it won the 2014 Lok Sabha polls because of the FPTP system
- As the party polled only about 31 per cent of the vote share
What is happening in Parliamentary Panel?
- Reforms suggested by: The Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India.
- What? The above said parties have told a Parliamentary panel that the existing first-past-the-post-system needs to be replaced with a hybrid format where elections for a small number of seats are through proportional representation.
- Hybrid format: to include both first-past-the-post-system and proportional representation system.
- Argument in favour for proportional representation system:
-
- Majority aspirations and the actual will of the people is not getting reflected in election results. Example : Recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections held in March this year where the BJP which got 39 per cent of the vote share but won 312 seats, while the Samajwadi Party with 21.8 per cent votes got 47 seats and the Bahujan Samaj Party with 22.2 per cent got 19 seats.
- A party with even 20% share does not get a single seat, while a party with 28% can get disproportionately large number of seats.
Related Questions:
- “A true democracy cannot exist without reflection of a majority aspirations” Comment.