Ontario voters stay home, leaving a barely legitimate Assembly
Yesterday’s provincial election for the Ontario Legislative Assembly raises some alarming questions about how Canadian electoral systems are functioning to provide representative and responsible government. The most dramatic outcome of … Continue reading
Canada’s new parliamentary caucuses are all wrongly constituted
Canada has a newly elected national parliament, but its composition is very wrong. In fact, the party parliamentary caucuses in the new House of Commons are unrepresentative of the Canadian … Continue reading
US Supreme Court says cheating with electoral boundaries is just fine
The toxic virus of political partisanship today infected the United States Supreme Court, with a majority of five judges appointed by Republican presidents voting to declare that federal courts should … Continue reading
Close final US House special election backs ‘blue wave’ prediction
Predictions of a major ‘wave’ against Republican party incumbents in the coming US midterm elections have gained ground at the final special election to be held before the general election … Continue reading
Zimbabwe: another doubtful and deadly election result
There have already been deaths on the streets of Harare after Sunday’s elections in Zimbabwe, and if the election results released so far are any guide, protest by opposition supporters … Continue reading
First-past-the-post: a rogue’s practice?
How did ‘first-past-the-post’ voting – the common target of election reform campaigns in Britain, Canada and the US – get its famous name? “FPTP” is really just a plurality criterion: … Continue reading
Canadian parliamentary governments have a strange lack of voter backing
Last weeks’s provincial election for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario highlights a major problem with Canadian elections: the surprisingly low electoral mandates of almost all their national and provincial governments. … Continue reading
Malaysian government calls elections on grossly malapportioned boundaries
Malaysians will go to the polls on May 9 to try to elect a parliament, using what are probably the world’s most distorted electoral district boundaries. Malaysia has been governed … Continue reading
Hungarian government retains absolute control of parliament
Despite winning only 48% of the national vote overnight, Hungary’s dominant Fidesz party has again taken around 67% of the seats in the nation’s parliament. The two-thirds majority will allow … Continue reading
Gun reform cause: partisanship imposed by broken US voting system
The astonishing campaign by US school students to change gun safety law leads directly to calls for current legislators to respond, or be voted out of office. But one key … Continue reading
On Elections 