but it is not the election result anyone expected - or wanted. The result has ended up with, as the Whirlwind put it, "the team with the least runs winning".
How? Two "independent" MPs have been elected. One has held the position previously and seems to be genuinely popular with his electorate - popular enough to be voted in again. Unfortunately he has been taken ill and will be off sick for the next two months.
The other man was elected on preferences from one of the major parties.
Yesterday he announced that he would allow the present government to continue in power in return for a ministerial post.
In making this decision he has gone against the wishes of his electorate. He claims the decision was made "in the interests of stability" - but the decision was not his to make. It was not what the voters of his electorate wanted. They made that clear both at the time of the election (through their preferences) and when it became obvious he would be in the position of "kingmaker".
We had the same problem at the time of the Federal election before last. Two of the "independents" sided with the party those who voted them in did not want. They have, rightly, not been re-elected.
We have, as regular readers of this blog know, a system of compulsory preferential voting here. If independents fail to acknowledge the wishes of those who vote for them and those for whom the candidate is the second choice then it makes a mockery of the system.
As we also have fixed terms of four years the situation is even more serious. This decision does not allow the situation to be remedied any time soon.
Stability is not necessarily democracy. It won't necessarily get things done.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
I am so sick of minority governments! Time after time a 'democracy' is held to ransom by one or two people with very specific axes to grind. Poor you, poor South Australia.
Post a Comment