Introduction
The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate the difference between the election systems in Australia. The two kinds of electoral systems in Australia are proportional electoral voting and preferential electoral voting. The elections are held to elect the management of the Australian Senate. This is why it will be very much important to elect the members properly and in a fair way. Otherwise there will be high chances of corruption within the country.
The main arguments
The main arguments can be listed below to prove that proportional electoral voting is much fairer than the preferential electoral voting (Sinnott and Farrell 2017).
The preferential electoral system is the kind of voting system in which the candidates have to be given the preference by the voters. This kind of electoral system is not at all crystal clear since it always favors the major and strong political parties. This system always prefers the party that has the largest number of votes where their seats are quite disproportionate (Sinnott and Farrell 2017) This electoral system is merely a unique for the voting system in the country. This always leaves a reflection on the number of the political parties that are smaller in number. In this kind of electoral system, the voters go on to give the votes to their most favorite candidates according to the ranking (Ahmed 2013).
The proportional electoral system is another voting system in Australia. This is a group of electoral systems that is used to elect the candidates in the multi-member candidates (Bowler and Donovan 2013) The independent candidates are selected by the common people under the parties and groups. The members are selected in proportion to the selected votes. There is no use of the ranking systems in this kind of electoral system. This is why it can be considered as a fairer electoral system. Generally there are three systems by which the candidates are elected. These three systems are list systems, mixed-member proportional system and single transferable voting system (Ahmed 2013) In this context it can be said that proportional electoral system is much better and fairer than the preferential electoral system just because the people can vote can only once through the single transferable voting system. Each vote can be transferred between the candidates in the election (Bowler and Donovan 2013).
In the proportional electoral system, the candidates can win when their votes exceed the quota. The ballot papers are also used regarding the election of the candidates (Betzler, Slinko and Uhlmann 2013). As the vote of all the people is counted in the proportional electoral system, it will be very important to come to the conclusion that the proportional electoral system since there is no ranking or preferences.
Conclusion
This essay can be concluded by saying that the proportional electoral system is much better than the preferential electoral system. The former one is much better since all the people can vote according to their choices and their votes are not used as per the first preferences or rankings.
References
Ahmed, A., 2013. Democracy and the politics of electoral system choice: engineering economics dominance. Cambridge University Press.
Betzler, N., Slinko, A. and Uhlmann, J., 2013. On the computation of fully proportional representation. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 47, pp.475-519.
Bowler, S. and Donovan, T., 2013. The limits of electoral reform. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sinnott, R. and FARRELL, D.M., 2017. The electoral system. In Politics in the Republic of Ireland (pp. 109-130). management.
