Think tank suggests macro-constituencies, proportional representation for political stability

PETALING JAYA: The country can preserve its democracy and ensure political stability if it introduces a new electoral law where the country is divided into macro-constituencies, says a think-tank.

Center for Market Education (CME) chief executive officer Dr Carmelo Ferlito said the idea is that each constituency elects a number of MPs proportional to its population.

Currently, the 222 MPs in Parliament are elected by dividing the country into constituencies, where the candidate with the most votes wins the seat and the other parties do not get any representation.

Ferlito proposed that about 80%, or 178 seats of the 222 seats, should be assigned to the new system while the remaining 20% would be assigned to the winning coalition to ensure a “stability premium”.

“In each state, each party that runs should present a list of candidates equal to the number of available seats.

“By doing this, voters could choose both their preferred party and, within the party, their preferred candidate.

“For example, if in Selangor, Umno obtains 33% of the votes, Umno will win 12 of the available seats, and the elected MPs will be the first 12 by the number of preferences from voters.

“The possibility of choosing their preferred candidate will force politicians to establish a relationship with the territory and the voters.

“Moreover, it will give a chance for ‘outsiders’ to be elected if they have a good relationship with their territory despite not having a good relationship with the party leadership,” he said in a statement Sunday (Jan 21).

The main advantage of the proportional system, according to Ferlito, is to grant representation to smaller parties without forcing them into an alliance with bigger groups while preventing bigger groups from being threatened by smaller but indispensable parties at the same time.

Ferlito suggested two adjustments to the macro-constituency system to avoid fragmentation and ensure stability.

The first, he said, is to put a 5% floor for obtaining representation to participate in the distribution of the constituency seats – that a party should obtain at least 5% of the votes.

Regarding the remaining 20% of seats, he suggested that only 178 seats be distributed with the proportional system.

“We believe that our proposal presents advantages such as it is more democratic as it also grants representation to smaller or newer parties; the composition of parliament will better represent voters’ will.

“It incentivises the formation of coalitions after elections and only, if necessary, to force political agreements based on a clear and implementable programmatic pact.

“It introduces healthy competition within the same party, thanks to the preference system. This would also allow outsiders to emerge if they can gain consensus among the voters. There is a higher degree of power in the hands of voters.

“Fragmentation can be avoided with the 5% floor system, and stability is granted by the 20% stability premium,” he added.

Ferlito’s proposal came following suggestions for Malaysia to adopt a fixed Parliamentary term system where an election cycle will be scheduled ahead of time to prevent political fatigue among the voters, save money and increase voter turnout.