At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.
Our constitution through its excellent First Past The Post (FPTP) system has enabled voters to proceed with five seamless changes of government since independence. Three of which happened after consecutive elections. And most of our governments have been stable. This has been a key ingredient for our early successes. Our FPTP system has allowed us to focus on solving difficult problems which many back in the 1960s had rightly considered as almost unsurmountable. We also appreciate the quality of our constitution when political alliances break down: new ministers are appointed swiftly. And when we see how the absence of a good enough constitution in other countries hold them back. But it's not perfect. It has a slight clicking sound. Which needs to be corrected soon. In a mindful fashion.
David Ogilvy headline
We Already Have the Rolls-Royce of Constitutions
But it Has an Electric Clock
Essentially our electoral setup rewards winners a little too well. And there have been a couple of times when the results have been extreme. Like in 1982 and 1995 when one alliance swept all the seats. These two electoral outcomes have highlighted a problem with our FPTP system: we could have an opposition that's a bit too small. Indeed as Table 1 illustrates we ended up with an opposition of only four best losers in 1982 after one alliance won all the regular seats. In fact this has more to do with the way the current best loser algorithm allocates additional MPs than with the FPTP system per se. So how do we fix this? For sure we know what we don't want.
