Towards Constitutional Government
In Search Of The People's Choice
By Francis Ato Essuman
Free and fair elections are essential to representative democracy. What is even more important is that such elections must produce a fair reflection of the electorate's preferences.In any future attempt at democratic constitutional government in Ghana serious thought must be given to electoral reform. Unfortunately, at present it seems that only the Campaign for Democracy in Ghana (CDG) has recognised the importance of this issue. If, however, we are concerned that only the people's choice should be entrusted with the people's power of government then we should start to rethink the electoral procedures hitherto used in our elections.
Free and fair elections are essential to representative democracy. What is even more important is that such elections must produce in their final results, a fair reflection of the electorate's preferences. From the analysis of the results of the two parliamentary elections for the second and third republics it is clear that the seats obtained by the various parties bore only a limited relationship with the votes they actually received. This discrepancy also contributed to the destruction of both republics by military adventurists who claimed to be the real choice of the people.
ELECTION ANALYSIS
In the elections of 1969 Busia's Progress Party (PP) obtained 58.7% of the votes cast but secured 75% (105) of the 140 seats in the National Assembly. K. A. Gbedemah's National Alliance of Liberals (NAL) obtained 30.4% of the votes but only 21% (29) of the seats. The other candidates obtained 10.9% of the votes and 4% (6) of the seats. If each vote had an equal impact then the PP would have been entitled to 82 seats; NAL to 43 seats; and the others to 15 seats. There is no doubt that PP would still have held an overall majority. However, such a distribution of seats may have tempered the arrogance which began to creep into it.An analysis of the 1979 elections is even more revealing. In those elections Limann's People's National Party (PNP) won 71 seats with 645,080 votes; Victor Owusu's Popular Front Party (PFP) won 42 seats with 541,659 votes; Offori-Attah's United National Convention (UNC) won 13 seats with 310,062 votes; and Col Berhasko's Action Congress Party (ACP) took 10 seats with 156,484 votes. Put in another way it means that it took 9,086 votes to elect one PNP member; 12,897 votes to elect one PFP member; 15,648 votes to elect one ACP member; and a staggering 23,851 votes to elect one UNC member. It also means that while the PFP, UNC and AFP together obtained 363,125 votes more than the PNP these three parties combined had six seats fewer than the PNP.
If seats had been allocated in proportion to the votes obtained, the final result of the 1979 parliamentary result would have been: PNP 53 seats; PFP 45 seats; UNC 25 seats; and ACP 13 seats. There is no doubt that had this in fact been the outcome the politics of the third republic would have been totally different in character. It also means that no party could have formed a majority in the Assembly without a real alliance. The partnership between the PNP and the UNC never amounted to very much because in the end the PNP could do without the UNC.
The problem with the electoral system stems from the fact that it is anachronistic. In the British type winner-takes-all system, parliamentary seats are based on party victory in constituencies and not on popular votes cast
It is also plausible that the UNC would have formed an alliance with the PFP. What is important is that the Assembly would have had a vitality that it did not have. The attention of the PNP would have been better concentrated and it would not have strayed into the senseless bickering and litigation within its ranks which were so opportunistically exploited by Rawlings and his supporters.
THEORY AGAINST FACT
The problem with the electoral system stems from the fact that it is anachronistic. In the British type winner-takes-all system, parliamentary seats are based on party victory in constituencies and not on popular votes cast. The philosophy behind the British method is that electors vote for individuals to represent them in parliament so that in theory parliament is made up of individuals representing particular constituencies, The facts of political life have now changed,Electors vote for parties and party programmes and not individuals, Members now represent parties and not constituencies. It was said by many in Ghana in 1979 that if the PNP had fielded a goat then that goat would still have won. In the event it fielded Limann, a man who was totally unknown to most voters but who went on to beat well known and at times well respected experienced and established politicians. Limann would be the first to admit that he won his presidential election and many of his members won their parliamentary elections because they belonged to the PNP. The party and not the candidate is the dominant fact.
It seems reasonable, therefore, that the seats obtained as a result of an election in which party affiliation is dominant should have a result in which the votes cast for the party is the dominant determinant. For this reason the call by Maj Boakye-Djan of the CDG for the introduction of a system of proportional representation should be supported, Proportional representation is not a new or unworkable system. In fact no major democracy which has not been under British rule uses the winner-takes-all or first-past-the-post British system. In Britain itself proportional representation is used in Northern Ireland and the Social Democratic Party and the Liberals are campaigning for a change in other areas of the United Kingdom. In the Commonwealth it is used in Australia.
We should at least consider it.
There are many forms of proportional representation in use. It is convenient if we use the West German Additional Member System (AMS) as a model of preference. This is so because it retains one of the advantages of the British system: the opportunity it provides for there to be a direct local connection between the member and the constituency which has elected him.
AMS EXPLAINED
With the AMS method half the members of the assembly are elected from single member constituencies as at now under the British system. The other half are distributed as additional members to the various parties depending on the proportion of votes cast for them as parties in the election. For a start this will mean that the 140 single member constituencies in Ghana will have to be reduced to 70 such constituencies. The other 70 members will be additional members. Bearing in mind the small numbers in most of these constituencies this may not be a bad solution. The AMS works in this manner:- 1. Each voter is provided with a single ballot paper and required to make two separate choices in each of the two lists printed on the ballot paper.(a) The first list contains the names of the candidates seeking election to parliament (Bundestag) as the representative of that particular constituency. The candidate with the most votes wins the seat. This is at present in Britain and Germany.
(b) The second list contains the names of the parties contesting the elections. The voters’ choice of party can differ from the party to which his choice of candidate belongs. This is known as split voting and many Ghanaians used it in the 1979 elections in order for example to vote for the PFP in the parliamentary elections but for the PNP in the presidential elections. The votes in this second th determines the extent of party support and is used to fix the total numbers of seats a party should have in parliament.
2. As a specific example we will look at the March 1983 elections in West Germany. The Bundestag consisted of 496 members. (a) 248 of them were directly elected by single member constituencies as detailed in 1(a) above. (b) The other 248 were allocated additional members to the parties in order to reflect total party strength explained in 1(b) above.
(c) In the March elections the Christian Democrats had 180 members as a result of the first list preferences in 2(a). The Social Democrats had 68 and the Free Democrats and the Greens had no seats at all.
(d) But the preferences in the second list showed that the parties as parties had the following proportion of votes. Christian Democrats 48.8%; Social Democrats 38.2%; The FreeDemocrats 6.9%; and The Greens 5.6%. Since the second list defined the amount of party support these percentages indicated the approximate number of seats the parties should have in the Bundestag.
ADVANTAGES
There is also a requirement in West Germany that before a party can become eligible for additional members it must obtain at least 5% of the votes cast in the second list. Again in distributing the additional members a regional system is used. The end result is that all credible alternatives are allowed a voice in parliament. The situation in Britain in the elections of 1983 where the Conservative Party secured less popular support than in 1979 but increased its seats in Parliament became impossible.The major advantages of the AMS are:
1. It recognises the primacy of the political party over the individual candidate in modern elections. 2. It exerts a centripetal pull upon party ideology and methods steering them away from the extremes towards a mainstream consensus compromise through the necessity to rule in many cases by coalition.
3. It requires the party machinery to be efficient and grass roots based in order to catch as many votes over as wide an area as possible;
4. It encourages parties to select as possible additional members persons who though useful in parliament may not be able to win elections as candidates in the first lists. Such persons include women, academics and persons with specialist expertise.
By providing that each party should list five persons in the second list who will be the party's choice as additional members it allows those voting for the party some control over candidate selection. A party which lists persons who are totally objectionable is unlikely even to retain its party support. The listing of names has another benefit.
In the third republic in Ghana many of the "old guard" felt that their party and the PNP had been hijacked by so called supporters whose support had only become evident after the party had won the election. If such persons had appeared as names on the party lists it would have shown some commitment and a pool for appointments would have existed for the president to utilise in filling public appointments.
Finally, the AMS will destroy a 'myth. The myth that all Ashanti voted against NAL in 1969 or that all the Volta region voted for Gbedemah. A proportional allocation of seats on a regional basis will avoid "no-go areas" and spread party representation equitably over all regions.
