Because you would be hard pressed to write down the names of 10 MPs (members of cabinet included) in each of our last four governments alongside anything significant they've done that improved your life.
Our parliament looks also way too big when we compare it to that of a country which works well: Canada. They elect only 305 MPs although they have 34.5 million people. That's one MP for every 113,000 people if my math is as good as yours. By this yardstick our National Assembly shouldn't have more than 12 MPs. And Canada is one of the most geographically diverse country on the planet with almost 10 million square kilometres.
Which makes the suggestion that we should increase the size of our Parliament rather absurd.
Our parliament looks also way too big when we compare it to that of a country which works well: Canada. They elect only 305 MPs although they have 34.5 million people. That's one MP for every 113,000 people if my math is as good as yours. By this yardstick our National Assembly shouldn't have more than 12 MPs. And Canada is one of the most geographically diverse country on the planet with almost 10 million square kilometres.
Which makes the suggestion that we should increase the size of our Parliament rather absurd.
8 comments:
Why not compare with our favourite wet-dream generator Singapore?
Compulsory voting, voting age 21, 87 MP's for 1,222,884 voters (14,056 voters per MP). Which is not far from the 2010 ratio for Dodoland with 69 MP's for 879,897 voters, which gives a ratio of 12,752 voters per MP.
My personal favourite is Seychelles: 34 seats for 64,993 voters, giving 1,911 voters per MP... :-)
Brought to Dodoland's level, that would mean 879,897 ÷ 1,911 = 460 MP's!!! Qui dit mieux?
I am not sure city-state Singapore runs local governments (municipalities). Your figures may then be as flawed as comparing a wet-dreamer and an achiever!
@ Anonymous of August 22, 2011 7:17 PM:
In fact, there were other elections beside municipal elections in the city-state - they don't have municipal elections, but they do have presidential elections and general elections. But no, the municipal thing is irrelevant - my figures concern only members of parliament (MP's) because the case made by the original post refers to representatives elected by way of general elections, and this is the matter of concern: how many people do these elected persons represent.
If you want to include the 'conseillers municipaux' then you should also consider the 'conseillers de district' who are also elected on a free and fair basis by the people, right? So, can you help yourself correcting the so-called flaw, please?
Have u seen the no of electors in Constituencies no 2 and 3; their total is less than what the longest district Black River coupled with Savanne has. So, what were the reasons that pushed any Electoral Boundaries commission to maintain this? On what basis? I agree that 62+8 is already a large figure for dodoland!the moreso when obtained by First Past the Post (FPTP)system. We could go for a sharing between FPTP and Proportional System (PS) - say, 40 FPTP and 20 PS from an already established list by the parties, Rodrigues included.
@ Kranti:
True. So many people have seen that strange fact for so long, but only the Electoral authorities have not.
May I propose one candidate (only one candidate per constituency) elected per each of 50 constituencies having maximum 20,000 and minimum 17,000 population size (constituencies like Black River / Savanne and those of the East literally need to be cut down to size)? The rest of 20-30 seats to be allocated to top-second bests along party lists.
And that's it, because we certainly do not need more members of parliament.
And the same for municipal / district councils: Though this may be hard for the northern plains, I would favour a geographical division that is made along catchment area delimitations for better management of resources and the impacts of our activities on our environment.
But in any case, changing the consititution for an electoral reform was not in anyone's programme, and is not a priority.
The priority is that Xavier's 4 proposals should work, because otherwise(and if our rain does not pour in everyday as it is doing these few days until next year), do you think our NEETs will be discriminate in their anger as the Germans...?
@akagugo:
Lide bann sirkonskripsyon inpe pli standard la paret interesan.
Si ti met inpe bon depite dan parlman dimunn pa ti pu kas la tet ar nu excelan konstitisyon parski nu ti pu bizy enjoy nu lavi...
And for a country which the rest of the world cannot identify without a magnifying glass, local government bodies namely municipalities and district councils represent another absurdity.See for garbage collection, we have a Ministry of Environment.For organising cultural events, we have a Ministry of Arts and Culture.For managing sports tournaments, we have a Ministry for Sports and Leisure.For country planning, we have a Ministry of Public Infrastructure.And most ministers are elected representatives of the people except Best Losers.Adding hundreds of councillors along with obese administrations is a colonial legacy we must dispense with.
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