A new electoral law is required. All present electoral systems
have grave deficiencies in
implementing this principle of trust, because many of them put
a gulf between a citizen and
his representative.
These deficiencies cannot be corrected by making small changes.
CERLE's proposal is very clear and
is valid for any representative chamber - Municipal, Regional,
National or European:
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1.
Uninominal vote
Each citizen votes for a person on the list of candidates for
his district. Candidates make up
the list, but the citizen does not vote for the list, he votes
for a person on that list who
deserves his TRUST.
But if the district is also uninominal (one deputy is elected
in every
district, as in the British system), those who have voted for
candidates who are not elected are deprived of their representatives.
This is not just.
That
is why we propose plurinominal
district:
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2. Plurinomial district
In every district, several deputies (there could be 6, 7, 8
or more) are elected, so that every citizen has many more opportunities
for his choice of candidate to be elected. Obviously those who
are elected have received the most votes.
Even so, the same problem of the 'Uninominal voter' could arise:
those who have voted for an unsuccessful candidate are deprived
of their representative.
This is not just,
which
is why we propose transferable
vote:
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3.
Transferable vote:
Each citizen can select two candidates in his ballot, one with
the number 1, another with number 2. If the candidate marked with
number 1 is not elected because he has received insufficient votes,
then the vote goes to number 2.
Finally, the representatives are elected.
One could be elected with 30.000 votes, another with 3.000. In
all the present electoral systems, the vote of those two deputies
counts the same although one has 30.000 citizens behind him and
the other has only 3.000.
This is not just.
That
is why we propose unequal
vote of representatives:
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4. Unequal vote of
representatives:
The vote of each representative counts for exactly that number
of votes that the citizens have given him.
When a deputy presses his button to vote, we can say that he
is putting on the table all the ballots that he has received
from the citizens who elected him, not one ballot more, not
one ballot less.
At present the result of voting in the Congress could be, for
example:
184 - For
131 - Against
45 - Abstentions.
According to our proposal, the result could be as follows:
12,325,837 - For
7,100,221 - Against
6,003,250 - Abstentions.
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This means that:
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instead
of voting every four years, each
citizen is voting each time his deputy does.
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each citizen is taking part in
the political life of the chamber of representatives.
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at any given moment, the citizen
knows what his representative is doing - if he
intervenes, if he keeps quiet, or if he makes a proposal
- and what he is doing with the
vote that the citizen has entrusted him.
-
the democratic principle of equality
of vote for all the citizens is perfectly fulfilled.
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