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The current system for electing Lok Sabha MPs and MLAs in India called First-Past-The-Post. Each electoral constituency elects one single MP or MLA.. In order to vote you simply put an 'X' next to the name of the candidate you support. The candidate who gets the most votes wins, regardless of whether he or she has more than 50% support. Once members have been individually elected, the party with the most seats in Parliament/ Assembly, regardless of whether or not it has a majority across the Country/State, normally forms the next government. The system is used in most of the elections in India.
- It is simple to understand.
- The voter can express a view on which party should form the next government.
- It provides a close link between the MP/MLA and their constituency.
- Only one MP/MLA is elected in each constituency, so all the voters who did not vote for him or her are not represented. Their votes do not help elect anybody and so are wasted, they could have stayed at home and the result would not have been altered.
- In India the winning candidate usually gets 25 to 30% votes and hence the elected candidate does not represent the view point of remaining 70 to 75% voters.
- With multiple number of candidates, candidates with as small as 8-10% of votes win the election. The winning margin is sometime as small as 1% and usually is 4-5%. Thus the candidates resort to development of vote banks by sectarian policies. It leads to patronization and appeasement of small groups of voters based on the caste, religion, language etc. The broader issues of general public good are often forgotten.
- There is a lack of choice given to the voters. The candidates are selected by a small number of party members, and voters can only choose between parties. If the candidate selected for your party has views with which you disagree, you are left with no alternative choice within that party.
- Voters are represented unequally. One elected MP may have received only 25,000 votes against another elected MP from another constituency who may have received 2,00,000 votes.
- There is no correlation between the votes received country-wise and the number of candidates elected. In 2002 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, SP secured 25.3% vote and won 143 seats. In contrast to this, in 2007 elections SP secured the same 25.4% votes but could win only 97 seats.
- The way the boundaries of constituencies are drawn can affect the results. Governments are often accused of gerrymandering, adjusting the boundaries of constituencies to influence the results.
- Many times the voters are forced to select between bad and worse.
- In this way , the elected government may represent only 8-10% electorate ( 50% voting, 30% winning votes, 50% majority in the House).
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