Other Methods of Minority Representation

Limited Vote System. Under this system there are multiple-member constituencies with at least three seats. A voter can cast several votes but they are less than the

number of seats to be filled. If the constituency has five seats, the voter will have only three votes. Hence it is called limited vote. Moreover, he must not give more than one vote to any single candidate, but spread his votes over several candidates. This will enable a minority party to win some seats in the legislature, provided it is a large minority. This system does not give representation to small minorities, as the proportional representation does. It was tried in Portugal and in some States of the U.SA.

The Alternative Vote System.

This system is applicable in single-member constituencies only. Under this system a voter, who has to choose from four candidates, indicates his preference by showing first, second and more choices. If no candidate obtains more than half the votes after first choices have been counted, then second choices are also counted to decide who wins, while those candidates are eliminated who secured the lowest number of votes. This system does not favour small minorities.

The Cumulative Vote System.

Under this system the voter has as many votes as there are seats to be filled in the constituency, but he can cast them for one of the candidates or spread them over more or all of them. As he concentrates his votes on one candidate, it is called the cumulative vote system. It enables a minority to cast all its votes to its own candidate. This system is used for electing local officers in some States of the U.S.A.

 Communal representation.

This method was employed in British India for giving representation to religious minorities, called the “communities such as the Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and the economic classes such as the landlords, etc. It was done in two ways: by separate electorates. In this case the voters of each community voted separately for the candidates of their own community. Thus there were separate constituencies for each community. The second method was the joint electorate with reservation of seats. Since Independence, both Pakistan and India have given up the system of communal representation, except that seats are reserved in some cases in the India Constitution for the Scheduled Castes.

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