This Merdeka, we learned that we may soon be able to celebrate a new independence – freedom from the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system.

Much has been written about the manner in which FPTP systems are archaic and fail to adequately or accurately represent the political aspirations of an electorate.

Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) chair Abdul Rashid Ab Rahman said on Wednesday that it would look into the possibility of replacing this with another system to ensure proportionate representation.

Had we had instead an electoral system which was fully proportionate, Pakatan Harapan would only have about 36 seats, BN about 12, and PAS about 8 in Selangor – a vastly different reality than the 51 seats the ruling coalition won, and one that arguably better reflects political sentiment in the state.

Similar problems occur throughout the other states, and at the federal level.

The EC’s decision to study alternative models is thus extremely promising, one of the most encouraging developments to date regarding the long-term health of Malaysia’s democracy.

On a side note, we hope that when the ERC expands its membership from 10 to 18, it will include representatives from all major political parties – not just the one, as at present – as well as a more diverse set of individuals.

In this article, perhaps we can look at some of the most popular alternatives to FPTP systems that are widely practised around the world today, and investigate some of their pros and cons, as well as begin to ascertain which might be best for Malaysia.

The three most common alternatives are: party-list proportional representation (PR), single transferable vote (STV), and mixed-member proportional representation (MMP).

Definitions

As Wikipedia states: “Proportional representation characterises electoral systems by which divisions into an electorate are reflected proportionately into the elected body. If n percent of the electorate support a particular political party, then roughly n percent of seats will be won by that party.

With party list PR, political parties define candidate lists and voters vote for a list. The relative vote for each list determines how many candidates from each list are actually elected.

The STV uses small multiple-member districts, with voters ranking individual candidates in order of preference. During the count, as candidates are elected or eliminated, surplus or discarded votes that would otherwise be wasted are transferred to other candidates according to the preferences.

The MMP, also called the additional member system (AMS), is a two-tier mixed electoral system combining a non-proportional plurality/majoritarian election, and a compensatory regional or national party list PR election.

Voters typically have two votes, one for their single-member district and one for the party list, the party list vote determining the balance of the parties in the elected body.

Pros and cons

With PR, which is used in Argentina, Turkey, Brazil and the Netherlands, it appears that the primary emphasis is given to the party.

In open list variations of this system, voters decide the order in which individuals in a list are elected. In closed list variations, the party has the full power to determine the order.

In either case, it is also the party that determines the list of candidates in the first place. All in all, this may put too much power in the hands of the political party, and exacerbate the problem where internal party politics becomes more important than national politics.

A primary problem solved by the STV system, which is used in Ireland, is that of wasted votes. In FPTP, even if a candidate receives 49 percent of votes in a large constituency versus his or her opponent's 51 percent, all the votes are considered ‘wasted’.

By using the ranked voting of this system, voters can ensure that if their preferred candidate is not elected, their vote can go to their second (or third and so on) choice.

This system may be more appropriate for democracies with rather more internal variety and choice than is available in Malaysia, which has a relatively small number of parties to choose from.

Of course, there is a chicken and egg aspect to this, in that moving to such a system may encourage the growth of alternative political parties, and help diversify Malaysia’s political landscape.

MMP representation (as used in Germany and New Zealand) is something of a hybrid model, which does not quite replace the single representative per constituency system, but rather balances it by expanding the number of seats in the legislature to accommodate a composition in which each political party is represented proportionally.

This system is probably one of the easier ones for Malaysia to transition to, and also places considerable emphasis on political parties. Under this system, parties like PAS and Umno would have a much larger number of seats than they currently do.

Low hanging fruit

Any of the above systems, or variations thereof, will likely be an improvement from a purely FPTP system. That said, we should not limit our plans for electoral reform to transitioning into one of the above.

Read more: Electoral reform: What needs to be done, and how

In fact, for the short term, this perhaps should not even be the priority.

I would argue that the two areas which would have the biggest short-term effect would be to fix malapportionment and to implement local elections.

Put simply, Damansara's 164,322 voters and Putrajaya’s 27,306 voters both elect one representative each (with equal voting power) to the Dewan Rakyat.

There is no way that this makes any sense, and this must be addressed immediately by implementing a reasonable maximum gap between the biggest and smallest constituency.

Local elections allow Malaysians to elect the people in government that quite likely have the biggest impact to their day-to-day lives.

For a sizeable number of Malaysians, the people responsible for fixing potholes and ensuring effective rubbish removal may be more relevant to quality of life on a daily basis than the people who fix fiscal policy and so on.

Indeed, the criteria for electing people in local government may well be different from the criteria of electing people who you believe reflect the values and principles you would like to see inform the social fabric of the nation (think issues like the role of religion in government, affirmative action, etc.).

There are a great many ways to improve our electoral system, so we hope that this recent news is but the first of many important steps forward to ensure a healthier, more robust, and more representative democracy for all Malaysians.

NATHANIEL TAN is eager to serve.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.