ELECTION AND ELECTORAL SYSTEMS

I. CONCEPTUALIZING ELECTION AND ELECTORAL SYSTEMS

In contemporary age of representative democracy, election (characterized by certain

objective and subjective features like freeness, fairness, all-inclusiveness,
competitiveness, periodic and the like) is assumed to be the heart or life-blood of
democracy. This is, at least and in part, for the very simple fact that democracies are as
good as the people who elect their representatives and, in turn, as good as the
representatives who are elected. Electoral process is a formal procedure by which
individuals decide what to choose. The act that individuals perform while choosing
among the different alternatives in an election is called voting. Nevertheless for an
election to be regarded as the life-blood of democracy it must fulfill certain standards:
 Fair
 Free
 All inclusive
 Periodic
 Competitive
Free election implies the independence and autonomy of voters for electing the candidate
of their own choice. Voters should be given freedom, i.e. they should not be harassed and
intimated while choosing whomever they want. It is about the confirmation of election
with the guarantee and practice of basic civil and political rights. Fair implies that the
contending political parties and candidates in general should compete on equal and
equitable bases having an equal and equitable accessibility to resources such as media
coverage. Moreover, an election to be free from any possible intimidations and influences
should be held in secret ballot. This is just for the purpose of protecting the privacy of the
voter. Democratic elections are also held with regular time intervals and shall be all-
inclusive. Elections, to be democratic, need to be all-inclusive in the sense that they
should be held on the basis of universal suffrage and participation of all eligible parties
i.e. franchise right should be extended to all adult individuals. If election fulfils these
standards it is in a way competitive. Elections are usually coordinated and carried out by
an electoral commissions or boards. These commissions shall be independent and neutral
of any political loyalty or affiliation for undertaking the election properly and in a
democratic manner. In addition to an independent and neutral electoral board, a
democratic election also requires an independent judiciary organ. Those individuals or
parties who disagree with the final decision of the electoral commission submit their
complaints to courts for final decision.
An electoral process of a given state is not only about the simple translation of votes in
to seats but also must addresses, at least the following issue:
 The number of people and the constituency a candidate represents. And
representation takes three forms: geographical representation- where each part of
the country is adequately reflected in national political organization; descriptive
representation – where the national government represents the population in a way

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 that all sectors of the people (the poor, men and women equally, different religions
and cultures) have a voice in government; and functional representation – a system
whereby no significant parts of the population are disenfranchised but the system
takes into account the preferences of most people.
 The number of representatives that a constituency would have
 The electoral system
Some constitutions specify the number of people who are represented by a single
representative in an office. For example, according to the American constitution, the
number of people, which an elected individual represents, is 250, 000. Though the
constitution of FDRE does not specifically state the number of people a legislator
represents the electoral law of the country (proclamation N o 64/1993) states that each
constituency shall be made up of one hundred thousand inhabitants and an electoral area
with 100, 000 people is entitled only for one representative. The proportion of people to
be represented by a single legislator is determined by the total number of population of a
state. It would be easy for a legislator representing a small number people to closely
follow and scrutinize the problem faced by the people whom he represents. However, if
the population the country is too large, this way of representation will lead to large
number parliamentary representatives and, this large number of representatives in the
parliament could create in conveniences for carrying out government activities
effectively. Therefore, the setting of the number of people to be represented by a
legislature should take in to account the total number of the population of the country and
effective operation of the parliament.
The other important question with regard to representation is that whether one or more
representatives should represent a constituency. Some argue for the representation of a
constituency by a single representative for the purpose of manageable size of
parliamentarians in the legislator. The rationale behind this decision is that such
representation creates a suitable condition for having a stable government. On the other
hand, some people argue for the representation of each constituency by more than one
individual. These people argue that if only one person represents a constituency people
who did not vote for the individual that is elected will be devoid of representation.
Therefore, they suggest representation on the basis of the proportion of the total number
of votes won by each party. This is called proportional representation. However countries
with proportional representation type of electoral system usually experience instability
and frequent change of government jeopardizing the effective implementation of party
programmers.
The point is electoral systems in different countries and the different systems have
different effects. Electoral systems functions to select representatives and translate the
votes cast in a general election into seats won by parties and candidates in the parliament.

Generally, we can think of the electoral system as the method by which voters make a
choice between different options. More specifically, we can think of the electoral system
as being comprised of a set of crucial choices– in particular, who is to be elected, and

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how? Elections are used to choose heads of state, heads of government, and members of
the legislature, as well as a variety of other offices in political democracies.

II. FUNCTIONS OF ELECTION

Elections in democracies serve four principal functions. These help to identify the most
critical questions for understanding why and how elections matter. Te four principal
functions of elections are:
1. Legitimization. As noted above, the legitimacy of ruling elites in a democracy is
ideally conferred through ‘free and fair’ or ‘clean’ electoral processes that are free
of corruption, intimidation or restricted choice. An important assessment question
for any electoral process is: how and in what ways does the electoral process confer
on the government legitimacy to wield authority and to advance socio-economic
development? Warren (2006) explores the complex relationships between
democracy and the modern state, arguing that democracy emerged historically to
provide such legitimacy for the coercive authority of the state.
2. Exercising accountability. It is through electoral processes that leaders are ‘held
to account’ by the people, for providing security and fostering development—or
providing critical goods and services such as a stable environment for economic
development. To what extent does the electoral process allow the exercise of
accountability? Te studies in Tomassen (2014) explore the relationships between
electoral systems and exercising accountability. The relationship between elections
and accountability is not automatic. Sun and Johnston (2009) found in their study of
India and China that democratic processes have not worked well to curb corruption
—and India is doing no better than China at curbing the problem of corruption at the
local level.
3. Choosing ‘representatives’. Representation happens in quite formal ways, such
as through the nomination of candidates and lists of political parties, but
representation also has a deeper meaning in terms of how such individuals or
organizations portray what they seek to represent. In practical terms, representation
can be presented ideologically (such as by a ‘socialist’ party), in geographic terms
(such as by Italy’s Northern League), along ethnic, racial, religious or sectarian lines
(such as the political parties in Northern Ireland) or along other lines (such as the
environmentalism of the Green Party in Germany). Constructing ideas of
‘representation’ is at the core of electoral processes in that they articulate visions of
inclusion and exclusion in the political community, and its common values,
purposes and goals. Dovi (2016) reviews the influence of the seminal work of
Hannah Pitkin. Pitkin described: (a) formal representation, which includes

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 authorization or a warrant to act, and accountability, or incentives and sanctions for
performance; (b) symbolic representation, representing a concept such as class or
gender; (c) descriptive representation, the accuracy of resemblance; and (d)
substantive or issues-oriented representation.
4. Exercising voice, aggregating preferences. Electoral processes give meaning
to the principles of political equality and popular control in democracy. In ideal
conditions, they also help to ‘educate’ the voter by setting common agendas,
defining the issues, articulating alternatives and options, and engaging in
competition with others on the best way forward. Te concept of ‘voice’ is essential
to electoral processes, together with the aggregation of each citizen’s views into a
common social or public choice.

Four factors emerge as central to assessing an electoral process. The first is ease of
voting: the ability of qualifying citizens to register, become candidates and participate in
voting should be as barrier-free as possible. Equally important is ballot design— whether
traditional paper or electronic, the ballot must be clearly presented and designed to
minimize mistakes or intentional manipulation. Second, determining which political
parties and which candidates are eligible to run for office is a critical part of the
process. Nominations, democracy within political parties, and official determination of
candidacies must be fair, transparent and consistent with democratic principles. Third, the
process of campaigning is about mobilization, or rallying citizens around a candidate,
party, programme or set of ideas. Campaigns are often extremely divisive precisely
because elections are designed to be competitive. Candidates and parties seek to define
what they are and what they believe, but also what they do not represent or believe.
Fourth, perhaps the most important institution for ensuring a credible and, to the extent
possible, free and fair election is the electoral management body (EMB).

III. TYPES OF ELECTORAL SYSTEMS

Generally, there are two types of electoral systems:

1. The Majority systems, which involves some sort of majority rule in deciding who
wins the election, and
2. The Proportional representation system that uses a formula to calculate the seat
allocation, and the size of the district, as well as the number of representatives per
district, proportionate to the total electorate.
Moreover, electoral systems affect the way in which district boundaries are drawn, how
voters are registered, how votes are counted and most important, the degree of political
dissent and type of political activity in the country. They also affect the outcome in terms
of which parties gain control. Electoral systems also influence the growth of political
parties. A proportional representation system encourages the development of many
parties, for instance. But the effects of different electoral systems cannot be determined

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with any degree of certainty; each country is very different from every other and often-
unexpected circumstance and factors have a function.
Below we describe the different kinds of electoral systems that can, as we saw above, be
grouped around whether they are majority or involve proportional representation.
The Majority systems
First past the post (FPTP): This is the simplest form of plurality-majority electoral
system. It involves electoral districts from which a single representative is elected to
office, for instance the legislature. The winning candidate is simply the one who gains
more votes than anyone else but, importantly, it doesn’t have to be the majority of the
votes
According to this method, in each single member district, each voter can cast one vote
and the candidate with the most votes wins. Countries like Ethiopia, Kazakhstan,
Pakistan, Puerto Rico, the USA and the UK subscribe to this type of electoral system.
Block Vote: this is also a plurality-majority type of system but it involves multi-members
districts where the voters have as many votes as there are candidates to be elected. More
than one candidate is elected from each district. Voting can be cast for either a candidate
or for a party. The party decides which of its members will become a representative.
Alternative Voting: This system is often called preferential voting. This is a special type
of plurality-majority vote that requires that voters use numbers to mark their preferences
on the ballot paper. For example, if there are five candidates running in a district, the
voters indicate by numbering from one to five that are their favorite candidates. A
candidate who achieves, say, over 50 percent of the first preferences are automatically
elected.
If a political party receives an absolute majority of the first preferences, is elected. If not,
the weakest alternative is eliminated and its ballots are given to the rest of the candidates,
according to the voters second preferences. The process continues until a majority winner
emerges. For example, suppose that there are 4candidates A, B, C, D receiving 41, 29, 17
and 13 per cent of the voter’s first preferences. Since none has received the majority of
the first preferences, D is eliminated. Let us further assume that the candidates received
41, 29, and 30 per cent of the second voter’s preferences. In this case B is eliminated and
the third round is a contest between A and C. Thus, one of these two will be the winner.
Alternative voting is used in Australia (House of Representatives), France
Two-Ballot Majority-Plurality system: According to this system a majority is required
for the election in the first ballot (first round of the elections). In that case majority means
absolute majority which is more than half of the valid votes. If none wins in the first
ballot, a second ballot is conducted and the candidate with the most votes wins even if in
the case of plurality of votes. We must distinguish this system from the majority-runoff
where the second ballot is restricted only to the two top parties. Majority-runoff has been
used for presidential elections in France, Portugal and Austria.

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Generally, the most striking characteristic of all these systems is that they usually use
single member districts or districts with magnitude close to one. Now, in most counties
which use majoritarian systems only single-member districts have survived. All the
majoritarian systems make difficult for small parties to gain representation, because they
need to win majorities or pluralities of votes in the electoral districts, unless of course in
case of geographical concentration. Thus, we can understand that majoritarian systems
tend to favor the larger parties. District magnitudes larger than one tend to reinforce the
above phenomenon.
The Proportional representation system
As the name suggests, proportional representation (PR) systems seek to closely match
a political party’s vote share with its seat allocation in the legislature.
Single Transferable Vote (STV): Under Single Transferable Vote (STV), the voter is
faced with a ballot paper containing the names of all candidates and ranks them in order
of preference. Candidates whose first preferences votes amount to or exceed the quota
(usually the Droop quota) are elected at once. If there are unfilled seats they are
distributed to the other candidates using the following procedure. The ‘surplus’ votes of
elected candidates, i.e. the number of votes that the elected candidates have in excess of
the quota, are distributed to the other candidates in proportion to the second preferences
marked on them. If there are still vacancies, the lowest placed candidate is eliminated and
the votes are transferred to the other candidates, again according the second preferences
marked on them. If the candidate awarded the second preference on a transferred ballot
paper cannot receive it, by having already been either elected or eliminated, the paper is
transferred according to the third preference or the fourth if the third ranked candidate is
unable to receive it, and so on.
List Proportional Representation: In its simplest form, this involves each party
presenting a list of candidates to the electorate. Voters then vote for a party (not an
individual) and the party subsequently chooses who will receive a seat in the parliament
from the list.
There are two main forms of List Proportional Representation: closed-list and open-list.
Both forms use a regional or national list of candidates in each constituency drawn up by
each party before Election Day. In closed-list Proportional Representation, the party
ranks the names on the list, and citizens vote for a party, not a specific candidate. In
open-list Proportional Representation, voters choose a preferred candidate (or candidates)
from the list of the party for which they wish to vote. This means that voters effectively
determine the order in which the candidates on the list will be awarded seats.
For instance, countries like the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Mozambique,
Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Austria, Belgium, Finland,
Netherlands, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Sweden etc use this electoral system.

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Mixed Member Proportionality (MPP): In mixed electoral systems, citizens cast two
votes: one to directly elect an individual member to serve as their representative, and a
second for a party or parties to fill seats in the legislature allocated according to the
proportion of the vote share they receive. A citizen’s second vote, which allocates seats to
parties according to List PR, is used to attempt to compensate for any disproportionate
results in the FPTP constituency part of the election. Additional seats are awarded to
qualifying parties where the number of constituency seats that they won fails to reflect
voter support shown in both components of the election.
MPP is used in Germany, Mexico, New Zealand, Scotland, Wales, Russia, Niger and
Japan…etc.
Dual Member Proportional (DMP): This is a new proposal developed by a
research project funded by the University of Alberta. It recommends two member
districts where one is elected by FPTP and the other by a process of proportionality. It
is one of the five options included on the Prince Edward Island plebiscite this year.

IV. VOTING BEHAVIOR AND VOTING BEHAVIOR DETERMINANT

FACTORS
Elections and voting are an indispensable part of any democratic political system
because it is a process through which people are elected into various offices and for
different assignments. Voting is the action of formally indicating one’s choice of
candidate or political party at an election; while voting behavior is an act of
aggregating individual preferences into collective decision in an election. Voting
behaviour is a form of political behaviour which explains how and why decisions are
made by public decision makers. It focuses on why people vote as they do and how
they arrive at the decisions they make. Bartel’s (2008) analysis of voting behavior
focuses on the determinants of why people vote as they do and how they arrive at the
decisions they make. This implies that the behavior of a voter is influenced by several
factors. Banski et al (2012) for instance, identified a combination of attitudinal, social
and psychological factors as responsible for determining individuals‟ voting behavior.
According to Bartel (2008), people vote according to their original political
disposition, while some others vote because of the candidates‟ personal
characteristics, qualities and abilities. Furthermore, Lindberg and Morrison (2007)
opined that in order to reproduce their leadership, the patron-clientelistic networks of
patronage and personal loyalty shaped the behavior of voters in most African political
systems.
Voting behaviour in Africa is predominantly explained by factors such as ethnicity,
personal linkages, and clientelism. The sociological approach analyzes voters’
behavior from the perspective of the position the individual occupies within social
structures. This implies that decisions at elections are determined by such factors, as
gender, age, education affiliation to ethnic groups. Furthermore, factors such as

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assessments of certain collective characteristics such as personal qualities, abilities,
evaluation of performance, party identification and ideology are also determinants of
candidate choice. Chressanthis et al. (1991) noted that voters’ personal ideology about
a candidates Charisma determined their voting preferences. They found that a
combination of voter’s personal ideological position and leaders’ charisma predicted
voter’s behaviour. Also the stimuli voters receive from political parties shape voters’
ideology and behaviour. Bratton and Van De Walle (1997) refer to this as clientelistic
voting based on personal ideology and affective ties of patronage. Lindberg and
Morrison (2017) found this to be a common feature in African political systems. The
Patron-clientelistic networks of patronage and personal loyalty shaped the personal
ideology of voters and the leadership they reproduced. Thus exchanging political
support for personalized favours and benefits reproduce pacts of mutual loyalty and
voters choose representatives based on how good they are as patrons.

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