A broad political consensus is needed for modifying the electoral system, Igor Botan, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT), stated for IPN. According to him, mere suspicions that someone tries to modify the electoral system in order to benefit from this annul the legitimacy of the proposed changes.
Igor Botan described the main characteristics of the three basic electoral systems – majority, proportional and mixed – saying that a broad consensus of the political class is needed when an electoral system is chosen.
So, the pure majority system envisioned the election of 101 MPs by uninominal constituencies. Under the proportional representation system used now in Moldova, the MPs are elected based on party lists. The mixed system enables to choose a part of the MPs based on party lists, while the others by constituencies.
Igor Botan noted the three electoral systems have 11 main variations and over 100 variations overall.
Questions that initiators of modification of electoral system must answer
Speaking about the changes proposed to the electoral system, Igor Botan said the initiators must answer a series of questions, like: What kind of political regime will Moldova have as the electoral system has implications for the political regime? Will Moldova remain a parliamentary republic or will become a semi-presidential or presidential republic? Do we need parties that would represent a divided society, with nuances or not? The modification of the electoral system must take into account the right of the minorities and gender problems. Furthermore, the recommendations of the Venice Commission say broad political consensus is required to change the electoral system so as to avoid major disturbances in society.
According to the ADEPT director, there is the international experience about how the MPs who change the parliamentary groups or do not fulfill their duties within the proportional representation system can be penalized. But the Democratic Party, which wants the electoral system to be replaced so as to combat political cruising, benefits from this phenomenon the most.
Igor Botan said the parties must decide how they will represent the people based on their political preferences. Emphasis can be laid on the stability of government, but the people can rebel if they are not represented appropriately and stability disappears.
Characteristics of electoral systems
Igor Botan said a proportional representation system similar to Moldova’s is used in the German state Bavaria, but the lists of candidates there are open so that the people choose the party and the order of the candidates proposed by parties on the open list.
The current electoral system of Moldova was used to choose eight legislative bodies. This system was introduced to elegantly deal with the representation of the political preferences of everyone, including the vote of the Transnistrians at special polling places and of those from the diaspora. The law was modified to ensure that at least 40% of the candidates are women. There are no lost votes in the proportional representation system because each party is represented in accordance with the gained number of votes.
Igor Botan wondered why the current electoral system should be changed and what will the consequences be?
The proportional representation system is a cheap one compared with the majority system or the mixed one because, in the last two cases, the MPs who will go to the Cabinet will free seats in Parliament and new elections will have to be held in the constituencies that remained without MPs. In Ukraine, in particular periods, about 1/3 of the seats of MPs remained vacant after MPs chose to work on the Cabinet or to fill other posts. In such cases, the problem of quorum appears and the parliamentary majority that will have more gaps in constituencies will be thus punished.
The majority system is a system with a lot of lost votes. For example, the representation in Parliament of the unionists, who are distributed relatively uniformly in the country, can reduce dramatically and there are minimal chances for this political option to be expressed directly again.
The uninominal voting system is very simple and this is its advantage. But this can turn into a disadvantage because the people have a ballot with candidates and they know well who they want to vote for, but don’t know who will win. Ultimately, whole political segments can remain non-represented.
Igor Botan said there are a series of interconnected things that should be solved before discussing a new electoral system. Those who propose the change should explain what their actual goal is, what political regime is better for Moldova so as to be able to choose the suitable electoral system, what party system will exist for ensuring harmony between the electoral system, party system and political regime. According to him, society is worried because things concerning the replacement of the electoral system were presorted very unclearly.
Dan Caranfil, IPN
