The dominance of political parties today is mostly the result of electoral systems that allow the winners to exert greater dominance over who can rewrite the laws and even set electoral laws.

This means it’s beneficial for representatives to form larger blocks. One can only do that by compromising the message as they join greater blocks. This means representatives with strong principles are disadvantaged from the very start.

A Muslim who believes in Shariah law yet is more economically aligned to western trade policies is forced to either pick his/her religion or economic preference. This is unfortunate as the notion of maximising one’s choice is reduced significantly due to the current political structure which only provides oxygen to political parties while choking out independent candidates.