Fallacies in First Past The Post election system

S. Srinivasan writes:

“Belgium was the first country to introduce proportional representation in 1899 for national legislative elections to its lower chamber.

Today, besides Belgium, Australia, Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland adopt one of the many models of proportional representation.

Single transferable vote, choice voting or the Hare-Clark System are systems that asks the voters to rank candidates on the ballot. Voters’ choice is based on ranking the candidates rather than on choosing a party, so voters can choose between candidates from the same party or vote for candidates from different parties.

The single non-transferable vote system enables the voter to cast a single vote for one candidate in a multi-member constituency. In a four-seat constituency, among the candidates contesting, the four receiving the largest number of votes individually would win the seats.

The Party List System is currently adopted by many democracies in Western Europe. This model has two variants. Each party nominates a list of candidates equivalent to the number of seats to be filled from a constituency.

In the ‘Closed List System’, the party fixes the order in which the candidates are listed and elected and the voter casts one vote for the party list as a whole. Thus, if a party wins enough votes to be awarded three seats, the first three candidates listed on the ballot are automatically elected. On the other hand ‘Open List’ allows voters to choose the candidate they like. Votes are cast for candidates and not for parties.

The most popular model adopted and considered fit for adoption by many countries is the German model known as the Mixed Member System, that includes members elected both from single-member constituencies and from party lists. In many cases, half the seats are filled from single-member constituencies and the other half from the party lists. Voters cast two votes; one for the local candidate of their choice and one for the party of their choice.”