Context:

Recently various state political parties suggested that the existing FPTP system should be replaced with a proportional representation system (PR).

The FPTP system

• The FPTP is a simple electoral system where the winning candidate from a constituency need not secure more than 50% of the total votes polled.
• This means, for instance, that a candidate emerges as a winner with 23% votes as long as their opponents secure less than them individually, and it does not matter if the aggregate votes polled against the amount to 77%.

Proportional Representation

• The proportional representation (PR) electoral system is more representative in nature, lending voice to various communities and their aspirations.
• Political parties are rewarded with seats proportional to their vote shares in the PR system.
• Depending on their needs, multicultural societies like Germany, Australia, South Africa among others have adopted variants of PR.

Mixed-member proportional representation

• In this system, voters get two votes: one to decide the representative for their single-seat constituency, and one for a political party.
• Seats in the legislature are filled firstly by the successful constituency candidates, and secondly, by party candidates based on the percentage of nationwide or region-wide votes that each party received.
• The constituency representatives are elected using first-past-the-post voting (FPTP)
• The nationwide or region-wide party representatives are, in most jurisdictions, drawn from published party lists, similar to party-list proportional representation.