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The party system flourishes in Gibraltar because the electorate allows it to happen!
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Panoramic View by Joe Garcia
Do you remember how long ago it was when a committee was created to propose changes to our electoral and parliamentary existence? Do the Five Magnificent Men selected for this job remember when this was? Hopefully, it is not 3 months ago, because I seem to recall that was the time-scale they were given to come up with their proposals.
The question is this: Will there be real change or will it just be more of the same?
I recall years ago when the urge for reform was also in vogue. Then, there were those who wanted something along the lines of the Channel islands, where they have a committee system. That is, there is no Govenment and Opposition.
Those who keep angling for change seem to throw the same gambit onto the political arena, in fact that Government and Opposition does not fit into a minuscule place like Gibraltar.
Well, I ask you, what is wrong, the system of Government and Opposition or the players who get elected to play the game?
If there are politicians who want to take matters to extremes you will find that there is no system that would work well.
Can you imagine a committee system? This means that people from different political persuasions have to abandon their principles to work together.
It may sound fine to some people, but human nature being what it is, how can you get politicians to work together?
It can be argued that the committee system appears to work well in the Channel Islands, but then let us not forget that the system evolved historically. Can it be transplanted to other places?
Our current voting system, in that each voter can vote for ten candidates, does allow for people to elect whoever they want. That is to say, you do not have to vote along party lines, you could vote for ten made up from different parties.
In practice that does not happen because the electorate does not allow it to happen. There is all this criticism about the voting system, but when election day arrives, the vast majority of people vote along party lines!
Obviously, this is because the party system appears to be too entrenched for people to abandon it.
In other places, take Spain, the system can be deemed to be worse because the political parties present a list and you have no option but to vote for everyone on the list, for the simple reason that it is a closed list.
Thus, there may be candidates you don't know who they are and have never seen! Or someone you do not like, but still have to vote for that person.
With our system, as I say, you can vote for ANY ten, be they from the same party or not.
And what about the size of our parliament? What is the point of increasing numbers? Well, right now it is a 17-seat parliament, so there might be a case to increase the number of elected members to a greater number, if that means the door will be opened to a wider range of opinion.
Can we have a system that will allow for a third party to get in, a system that allows for people to be elected so long as they get a certain, pre-determined percentage of the votes?
And what about having back-benchers? In a small parliament like ours that may be a non-starter because, honestly, can you imagine someone from one party voting against his own party, because that happens in Westminster and elsewhere.
Anyway let's see what the committee come up with, the sooner the better!
20-04-12
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