Types of Elections

Types of Elections

"Elections are the festival of democracy. Everyone must joins this festival of democracy to strengthen it"

Narendra Modi

 

Major Electoral Systems across the world

1. First Past the Post Electoral System
2. Proportional Representation System
3. List System (Hybrid/Mixed System)
4. 2 Ballot System

First Past the Post Electoral System 

• This concept is borrowed from England. 
• Under this system the whole country is divided into various constituencies and people from each constituency elect their representative to the legislature.
• Here, the candidate is directly elected from a constituency not on the basis of majority (more than 50%) but on the basis of plurality of the votes he obtained, i.e., the candidate obtained largest number of valid votes is declared winner.

For Example - Consider in an election A got 24% votes, B got 20% votes, C got 16% votes, D got 5% votes, E got 15% votes and F got 20% votes. 

Here, none of the candidate got more than 50% votes (i.e., majority) but as per the first past the post electoral system, A who got the maximum number of votes (i.e., 24%) was declared winner.

Advantages of the first past the post electoral system 

1. It is the simples of all the electoral system, thus suitable for India.
2. It gives easy government since winner is declared in mostly in one round of voting.
3. The system allows a direct link between the people in the constituency and the members of the legislature or representative of the constituency.
4. Diversity will be represented in the legislature.

Disadvantages of the first past the post electoral system 

1. In a multi-corner contest majority of the voters in the constituency may go unrepresented.
2. The system limits the choice with the voters and the voters have to vote locally due to which while voting they may be guided local preferences of religion, caste, language, etc. i.e., voters vote on parochial basis rather than larger concerns of the development.
3. The system tends to over represent one political party and may under represent other political party.
• For example - In 1984 election, Congress got 48% votes and won 75% of seats whereas BJP got 25% votes but still won only 2 seats in the legislature.

Note - In India we follow First past the post electoral system in the elections of Lok Sabha, State Legislative Assembly and elections of local governments (Panchayats and Urban Local bodies).

Proportional Representation System 

• Countries - Spain, Portuguese, Israel, etc.
• It is not the like the System of proportional representation by single transferrable vote of presidential election.
• Here, each party got the number of seats as per the proportion of votes they secured in the election.
• For example - Suppose in an election, A got 40% votes, B got 25% votes and C got 35% votes. So, as per this system A gets 40% of the total seats (and the top 40% of the members of Party A will become member of the legislature), B gets 25% of the total seats and C gets 35% of the total seats.
• Here, each votes are respected.

Proportional representation system - Under this system the whole country is treated as a single constituency and only political parties are allowed to contest (no individual can contest election).

Parties secured votes in the election and then in the same proportion, parties are offered seats in the legislature.

Advantages of Proportional representation system 

1. Political parties are properly represented on the basis of their popularity level.
2. Voters can cast his vote from anywhere in the country.
3. The system does not necessitate holding bi-election in case there occurs vacancy (as the next member of the party will take space).

Disadvantages of Proportional representation system 

1. The system can cause polarisation of votes, i.e., division of voters on the basis of parochial consideration particularly if applied in a country which is already culturally diverse (like India).
2. It mostly leads to coalition government (which is by nature unstable).
3. The system does not provide for a direct relationship between voters and the elected representatives since people vote for party not for the individual representative.
4. Local issues may not be raised/focused well because of the absence of local constituency represented by local representative.

List/Hybrid/Mixed System 

• Countries - Nepal, Germany, Italy, etc.
• It is a mixture of the features/provisions of the first past the post system and the proportional representation system.
• Under this system fixed percentage of seats are filled through first past the post electoral system (usually the constituencies which are culturally very diverse) and the rest are filled through proportional representation system (by considering the whole rest area as single constituency which is not much diverse).

2 Ballot System 

• Countries - France, Russia, etc.
• It puts a condition that only the candidate winning more than 50% of the votes, i.e., getting majority will be the winner.
• If no majority is obtained in the first round, then the second round voting is held in which the top two candidates contest and the winner is decided through majority.
• Though it is time consuming and sometimes expensive since it involves multiple round of voting, it is the most effective way of selecting candidates who have the faith of the people.

For example - 

• Case 1 - Suppose Candidate A secured 52% votes, B secured 30% votes and C secured 18% votes. Here, A clearly got the majority (i.e., more than 50% votes), that's why A is declared winner (there is no need of second round of voting).
• Case 2 - Suppose Candidate A secured 35% votes, B secured 43% votes and C secured 22% votes. Here, no candidate got the majority (i.e., more than 50% votes), that's why second round of voting is held between the top 2 candidates (i.e., between A and B) and the one who secured more than 50% votes in the second round of voting is declared winner.

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Note - This is my Vision IAS Notes (Vision IAS Class Notes) and Ashutosh Pandey Sir's Public Administration Class notes. I've also added some of the information on my own. 

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