Well BD has ceased to be officially what can be termed a democracy after the jan 5 voter less "election" this year where 154 of 300 seats went to AL uncontested upon boycott by all parties lead by BNP. Only AL and its 3 coalition partners participated in the farce. Officially the west doesn't support it and is calling for new inclusive elections while India fully backed the "election" of its clients for obvious reasons.
BD always had a voalitle political landscape and poor democratic institutions. With the recent draconian laws like national-broadcasting law , free media & freedom of speech is already in the gutter. To overcome the politically partisan bureaucracy and state institutes, we developed the nationally accepted and respected care taker government system, institutionalized it and had 3 good elections from 1991- 2007 with a albeit controversial one of Dec 2008. But still people could vote after 5 years and had the chance to elect a parliament. Now even that is not possible with the abolition of the care taker system by Hasina.
I think our political instability leading to current one-party awami Bakshali regime has lot to do with our electoral system. The first-pass-the-poll system that we use is inherently undemocratic and is not used in many countries except UK which is on a different standard when it comes to established democratic institutions. Here large % of votes get wasted, parties don't get stronger, and corruption and muscle power plays a huge role in deciding MPs in parliament. Also u have to make pre-election allaince and nomination trade results in rebel candidates and all this doesn't reflect the true electoral power of each parties. In 2001 for eg. BNP got 40% votes but ended up getting 193 seats (64% of seats). Similarly AL got 48% votes in 2008 but ended up with 230 seats (70% of the seats). Also just by changing boundaries of constituencies, results can be effected in a big way. In FPTP some one with just 15-20% votes can become MP while the rest 80% votes get wasted.
Compare this with the proportional representation system used in majority western democracies. Here parties roughly get seats in proportion to their votes. It reflects the real aspirations of the voters and also helps smaller parties have a say in parliament. It has various methods some of which are simple while others r complex:
Proportional representation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Even UK is thinking of changing to this system. I believe a close Party-list PR system calculated by the D'Hondt method is suitable for BD. Even a Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) may also work. At least there won't be any scope of having a tyrant majority through rigged elections.
Advantages of PR system:
- Reduces chances and incentive for rigging as party constituencies are multi-member large districts. A slight change in numbers won't have much effect on the results.
- Everyone can have a say in parliament.
- Reduces inter-party infighting and emergence of rebel candidates.
- Reduces incentive for using local mastans and muscle power and also nomination trade where by corrupt businessmen get a hold of parliament.
- Candidates with good background can now have a chance and parties will have more confidence in nominating them since people will be voting for the party and not individual candidates.
- No need for pre-election allainces making seat adjustments and each party can go full throttle with out worrying abt whether giving advantage to parties with rival ideologies.
Disadvantages-
- Most often it results in coalition gov as its quite difficult for any one party to get 51% majority let alone a 2/3rds majority.
Well even fro such a system to work , some form of caretaker system is a must for BD since the state institutions have been totally destroyed by awami Bakshalites. But such as system is needed for long term stability IMO. Though it won't give a 2/3 rd majority to BNP in a hypothetical inclusive election but better for the long term. FPTP is inherently undemocratic, unstable and prone to massive manipulation.
Don't u think the opposition BNP (how ever inept it is) lead alliance also raise the issue along side CT system. AL will have a better chance of face saving with respected no. of seats if it ever decides to hold inclusive elections. Its a good way out for awami bakshalities. But I think BNP is too dumb and inept to go for something like that but if and when an inclusive election do take place (which i believe will) PR system holds the best long term prospect of resulting in a stable political climate in BD IMHO.
Countries by types of PR system:
@monitor @khair_ctg @@kalu_miah @kobiraaz @extra terrestrial @Bilal9 @aazidane @Saiful Islam @asad71 @idune @MBI Munshi @iajdani @Skallagrim @UKBengali
BD always had a voalitle political landscape and poor democratic institutions. With the recent draconian laws like national-broadcasting law , free media & freedom of speech is already in the gutter. To overcome the politically partisan bureaucracy and state institutes, we developed the nationally accepted and respected care taker government system, institutionalized it and had 3 good elections from 1991- 2007 with a albeit controversial one of Dec 2008. But still people could vote after 5 years and had the chance to elect a parliament. Now even that is not possible with the abolition of the care taker system by Hasina.
I think our political instability leading to current one-party awami Bakshali regime has lot to do with our electoral system. The first-pass-the-poll system that we use is inherently undemocratic and is not used in many countries except UK which is on a different standard when it comes to established democratic institutions. Here large % of votes get wasted, parties don't get stronger, and corruption and muscle power plays a huge role in deciding MPs in parliament. Also u have to make pre-election allaince and nomination trade results in rebel candidates and all this doesn't reflect the true electoral power of each parties. In 2001 for eg. BNP got 40% votes but ended up getting 193 seats (64% of seats). Similarly AL got 48% votes in 2008 but ended up with 230 seats (70% of the seats). Also just by changing boundaries of constituencies, results can be effected in a big way. In FPTP some one with just 15-20% votes can become MP while the rest 80% votes get wasted.
Compare this with the proportional representation system used in majority western democracies. Here parties roughly get seats in proportion to their votes. It reflects the real aspirations of the voters and also helps smaller parties have a say in parliament. It has various methods some of which are simple while others r complex:
Proportional representation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Even UK is thinking of changing to this system. I believe a close Party-list PR system calculated by the D'Hondt method is suitable for BD. Even a Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) may also work. At least there won't be any scope of having a tyrant majority through rigged elections.
Advantages of PR system:
- Reduces chances and incentive for rigging as party constituencies are multi-member large districts. A slight change in numbers won't have much effect on the results.
- Everyone can have a say in parliament.
- Reduces inter-party infighting and emergence of rebel candidates.
- Reduces incentive for using local mastans and muscle power and also nomination trade where by corrupt businessmen get a hold of parliament.
- Candidates with good background can now have a chance and parties will have more confidence in nominating them since people will be voting for the party and not individual candidates.
- No need for pre-election allainces making seat adjustments and each party can go full throttle with out worrying abt whether giving advantage to parties with rival ideologies.
Disadvantages-
- Most often it results in coalition gov as its quite difficult for any one party to get 51% majority let alone a 2/3rds majority.
Well even fro such a system to work , some form of caretaker system is a must for BD since the state institutions have been totally destroyed by awami Bakshalites. But such as system is needed for long term stability IMO. Though it won't give a 2/3 rd majority to BNP in a hypothetical inclusive election but better for the long term. FPTP is inherently undemocratic, unstable and prone to massive manipulation.
Don't u think the opposition BNP (how ever inept it is) lead alliance also raise the issue along side CT system. AL will have a better chance of face saving with respected no. of seats if it ever decides to hold inclusive elections. Its a good way out for awami bakshalities. But I think BNP is too dumb and inept to go for something like that but if and when an inclusive election do take place (which i believe will) PR system holds the best long term prospect of resulting in a stable political climate in BD IMHO.
Countries by types of PR system:
@monitor @khair_ctg @@kalu_miah @kobiraaz @extra terrestrial @Bilal9 @aazidane @Saiful Islam @asad71 @idune @MBI Munshi @iajdani @Skallagrim @UKBengali
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