by B. R. GOWANI
GRAPH/Business Insider
The elections are a means for the ruling class to pacify and control the populace. So every few years, elections are held to perpetuate the facade of “democracy.”
This year on May 7, United Kingdom, or more appropriately United Queendom, went through its election. Democracy and Kingdom/Queendom are two very contradictory terms and shouldn’t exist in the same place. But then again, it is powerful people who decide what should be and what should not be.
In the election, the ruling Conservative Party headed by Prime Minister David Cameron came out stronger than it was during the last term. The following are the number of votes and percentages for parties who were able to get more than one percent of the votes.
11,334,920 (36.9%) Conservative Party.
9,344,328 (30.4%) Labour Party.
3,881,129 (12.6%) UK Independence Party.
2,415,888 (7.9%) Liberal Democrats.
1,454,436 (4.7%) Scottish National Party.
1,157,613 (3.8%) Green Party of England and Wales.
There are 650 seats in the parliament. Keeping the above numbers in mind, and thinking that the election results truly represent all the eligible voters, the number of seats each of the above parties should have received are:
240 seats for the Conservative Party.
198 seats for the Labour Party.
82 seats for the UK Independence Party.
51 seats for the Liberal Democrats.
31 seats for the Scottish National Party.
28 seats for the Green Party of England and Wales.
But the number of seats each party won are:
331 (50.9%) Conservative Party.
232 (35.7%) Labour Party.
1 (0.2%) UK Independence Party.
8 (1.2%) Liberal Democrats.
56 (8.6%) Scottish National Party.
1 (0.2%) Green Party of England and Wales.
Because of the first-past-the-post or winner-takes all voting system, the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, and the Scottish National Party have been unjustly awarded 91, 34, and 25 more seats, respectively. On the other hand, the UK Independence Party, the Liberal Democrats, and the Green Party of England and Wales have been denied 81, 43, and 27 seats, respectively. The UK Independence Party was able to garner more than 1/8th of the total votes but would be able to send only one of its member to the parliament! So somewhere something is seriously wrong.
(Last year, in the Indian election, the Bharatiya Janata Party got 31.0% of the total votes but the parliament seats it won amounted to 51.9% of the total seats. In other words, some of the parties were denied their fair share of 21% seats.)
This wrong, that is, “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” (1) unless the election systems are changed in countries following this unrepresentative system.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com
(1) United States President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Gettysburg address.