Eight years after it was submitted to Parliament, Kaniva News reviews the Constitutional and Electoral Commission Report of 2009 and looks at one of the might-have-beens: A new voting system.
Tongans could have gone to the last three elections under a voting system the 2009 Constitutional and Electoral Commission described as “one of the fairest systems devised.”
The Commission recommended the kingdom change to a single transferable voting system.
“We are satisfied that it will give Tonga the fairest results,” the CEC’s report said.
Instead, Tonga has continued to use a variation of the first past the post system.
Under the original voting system, Tonga had a mixed multi- and single- seat first past the vote system, with single-seat districts such as each of the Niuas and ‘Eua and districts with two or more seats in districts such as Tongatapu, Ha’apai and Vava’u.
Voters were required merely to indicate which candidate(s) on the ballot paper list they favoured, and in the block districts, they had as many choices as there were seats in the district. The candidates with the most votes won.
Critics have pointed out that where several candidates are standing for election in one constituency under a first past the post system, it could mean that more voters actually cast their ballot for other candidates than the winner receives.
As an example, presume that 100 people voted in an election and that Candidate A won because she had 40 votes, whereas candidates B and C, who attracted 30 votes each, lost. In effect, this meant Candidate A was somebody the majority of voters didn’t want.
Under the single transferable vote system a candidate must meet a set quota of votes to win outright. Voters are allowed to select second choices, so if a candidate does not meet the quota, then votes are recounted and redistributed.
Effectively, it allows voters to indicate that they want a candidate to be elected, but if they don’t win, then they can indicate that their second preference would be another candidate.
This system means that the successful candidate is actually acceptable to a greater proportion of the voters than somebody who won under the first past the post system.
Political scientists have described the single transferable vote system as also extremely suitable for systems where voting districts might have more than one representative, such as existed in Tonga.
According to the CEC, in systems where political parties operate, the single transferable voting system encourages parties to co-operate by exchanging voter preferences. This means that they agree to tell their party supporters to select the candidate from the other party as their second choice.
In Tonga, where voters elect individuals rather than party members, candidates could make the same arrangements.
According to the CEC, under the single transferable voting system, voters could influence the composition of post-election coalitions.
The single transferable voting system is used in Australia, some local authorities in New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and some parts of Europe.
Instead of adopting the CEC’s recommendation, the Cabinet of the time, adopted a first past the post system under which all multi-member districts were sub-divided to become single-seat districts.
Tonga’s 17 constituencies have very small populations, with electorates in the outer islands have far fewer people than those on Tongatapu.
Tongatapu 3 had about 4000 people eligible to vote at the last election. The smallest electorate, Ongo Niua, had about 700.
For more information
Tonga: Constitution and politics
Political and constitutional reform opens the door: The kingdom of Tonga’s path to democracy
