Electoral systems are most important to ensure democratic form of Government but the present First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system being practised in India has not represented equal value for each vote. The FPTP allows political parties to come to power both in the State and Centre with less percentage of votes. The percentage of votes that a party gets is not the same as the percentage of seats it gets in this electoral system. This is not democracy as the system does not give a true representation of the voters. It excludes the losing voters from participating in Governance votes are not proportionate to seats. Most voters of our country are unaware about other electoral systems in practice around the world.
Former Chief Election Commissioner JM lyngdoh during his tenure observed that there were candidates who were elected with 25 per cent of the votes share in a contest of 50 per cent polling of total votes. It results in virtually 75 per cent of the electorate unrepresented. In a recent interview, published in a national daily, former Chief Election Commissioner of India SY Quraishi proposed to have a debate over Proportional Representation (PR) electoral system for India. He said with the third largest vote share of 20 per cent in the State, BSP got zero seats in the Parliament in last 2014 election which is a matter of concern in our democracy.
He proposed German model of mixed PR system with half PR and half FPTP to replace the present 100 per cent FPTP in practice.
International IDEA, an institute on electoral systems, says around 90 countries in the world have party list PR and mixed PR as the most widely used electoral system with voters having two votes each, one for constituency leader and one for the party. Countries with PR such as Italy, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Belgium and Germany have much better human development index and good in inclusive governance in comparison to others. There are many new democracies such as South Africa and Nepal who have opted for PR and it has been proved better than FPTP in building inclusive democracy.
India is the largest democracy of the world but though about 464 political parties have contested the 2014 election but a majority of them have no role in governance. The six national parties INC, BJP, BSP, CPI, CPI(M) and NCP have disproportionate representation in lok Sabha seat as per their vote share. The BJP with 31 per cent of total votes polled got 282 seats which is 51.9 per cent of the total seats. The BJD with 43.4 per cent of the total votes of the State has occupied more than 80 per cent of the total seats in the Odisha Assembly and with only 1.7 per cent of the total national polling got 20 seats in lok Sabha whereas DMK of Tamil Nadu with same percentage of votes has no seat. The smaller parties such as BSP, CPI (M), and CPI at the State level have been losing their proportionate representation in State Assemblies in spite of their presence in the State in terms of vote percentage.
The total number of votes in Odisha was 2, 88, 81,030 in 2014 out of which only 74 per cent of the voters cast their votes.
34 political parties have contested the election for lok Sabha and the State Assembly. The BJD got 44.10 per cent votes for lok Sabha seats and 43.4 per cent votes for the Assembly but it has captured 20 seats out of 21 in lok Sabha and 117 seats out of 147 in Assembly; so the seat share is very high in comparison to its vote share where as Congress with 26 per cent of vote share have no seat and BJP with 21.5 per cent of vote share have only one seat in lok Sabha. So, more than 55 per cent of the votes have not been converted into seats of lok Sabha or State Assembly.
It is argued that the PR system will give scope to small parties at the State level to have their representation in governance. Many of the smaller parties and minority parties are being politically marginalised without being represented in governance though they have mass base and votes and the issues they represent are quite relevant to national interest.
The PR electoral system is not new to India and has been in practice in electing Rajya Sabha members and President of India. Article 55(3) says the election of the President shall be held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferrable vote. Way back in the Constituent Assembly debate, Kazi Syed Karimuddin and Mahboob Ali Beigh Bahadur of Indian Muslim league had argued for PR system for India but the decision was in fever of FPTP because many of the former colonies of Britain have opted that and both USA and UK has been adopted FPTP in Parliamentary democracy which is best suited to a two-party system. But with emerging multiparty system, this system has been questioned in USA, UK and Canada.
For last seventy years there has been a debate over the many limitations of FPTP and many parties such as CPI, CPI(M), CPI(Ml), SAD, DMK, Samajwadi party, Samajwadi Jana Parisad, lok Satta party and AAP have been demanding PR for a long time.
The leader of the Dravidian movement C Annadurai had argued for PR. It is being reconfirmed by K Karunanidhi after the DMK defeat in 2014 without a single seat in the Parliament. The 170th report of the law Commission of India has also suggested for electoral reform by adopting PR.
The DMK, left parties and SAD have recommended that at least 50 per cent of the members of Parliament and Assemblies should be elected through PR.
India has already entered into coalition politics with large alliances of parties and for last 20 years, NDA and UPA have emerged as major alliances for governance. The continued diversity based on language, culture, ethnicity, social identities, caste and religion are not recognised in our governance as representation has always been a matter of great concern.
Especially, the women and religious minority have been neglected in governance. The major political parties with few exceptions are dominated by upper caste /class, urban and male persons while working class poor, low caste and women, religious minority are not being given a fair chance to get elected.
The increase in election campaign expenses in the absence of State funding of elections have almost denied the poor to take part in elections. Most of the parties lack inner party democracy in party structure and transparency in party functioning. There has been increasing influence of corporates and caste and communal forces over elections which is a major threat to democracy.
In a recent move, representatives of various political parties, academics, social activists, media representatives and concerned citizens of Odisha, on the eve of Odisha State conference on PR electoral system by Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India (CERI) Odisha chapter, have unanimously resolved for reform in electoral system by adopting PR electoral system to ensure democracy through representation in seats/governance based on percentage of votes. It is also decided to propose mixed member PR system with 70 per cent of candidate from PR and 30 per cent from FPTP electoral system.
The conference also demands that all the registered political parties must follow and adhere to inner party democracy and the Election Commission come out with appropriate rules and regulations mandatory for maintaining internal party democracy. It is also said that, along with existing reservation for SCs and STs candidates, there must be reservation for women in proportion to their population in the list of candidates under PR system.
However, PR is not a panacea to all our problems but our representative democracy has a close link with electoral system and countries with PR have established more inclusive democracy, better human development and social security standards.
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