TAMPERING WITH JUSTICE: Coming soon - How New Zealand businessman told Aiyaz Khaiyum to by-pass DDP and go straight to FICAC: "Asalam Wa alaikum, For your opposition get Sitiveni Rabuka charged against income tax charges at the very last minute so that he is not able to contest against you. Get him convicted by FICAC. Also, search for Biman Prasad's records at USP, he was involved in some corrupt practice...You are one of us and you will remain at your position to rule these people...May you have the grace of Allah in your life..."
Fijileaks: FFP was nearly out of the Pallah (Door) because of Khaiyum's arrogance and contempt for the voters; while he demanded Faiyaz Koya and other 'goslings' to tell voters to vote for Bainimarama, he went around telling voters to vote for him, hence raking over 17,000 votes, and the gullible liu muried Koya now staring from outside into Parliament
The unfairness of the Modified D’Hondt electoral system in Fiji
By Professor Wadan Narsey
FFP is entitled to 26.2 MPs,
SODELPA 20.9 MPs
NFP 3.9 MPs
There is little to quibble about SODELPA getting 21 seats (which is 20.9 rounded up to 21). But then why is the NFP entitlement of 3.9 not rounded up to 4. Why is FFP entitled to only 26.2 getting 27 seats when common sense (and any primary student) would know that the 26.2 should be “rounded down” to 26 as universally accepted
For years now, claims have been made that the electoral system in the 2013 Constitution and the Electoral Act 2014 is the best ever and the most proportional, where all votes have equal value.
While I have always argued that the massive 5% threshold has totally destroyed the value of a large numbers of votes which were cast for independents and small parties (some 27,000 votes in the 2014 Election and about 11,000 in the 2018 Election) even I was under the impression that the modified D’Hondt system used by the Fijian Elections Office under the Electoral Act was was still largely proportional.
But I have been proven wrong by the 2018 Election results declared by the Fijian Elections Office.
FFP (with 227,241 votes) has been awarded 27 seats, SODELPA (with 181,072 votes) has been awarded 21 seats and NFP with 33,515 votes, awarded 3 seats- all correctly according to the 2013 Constitution.
But I suggest here that it would have been much “fairer” by any sense of the word to award NFP one more seat and FFP one less, which would reduce the majority of FFP in Parliament to only 1- quite a decisive correction.
Indeed, NZ’s proportional system, internationally accepted, would have allocated FFP 26 seats (one seat less) and NFP 4 (one seat more than currently).
Even a primary school child can understand my arithmetic logic below.
All apparently lawful: according to the Modified D’Hondt system
Assuming that there are no substantial irregularities as claimed by the Opposition Parties, then the above results as declared by the FEO are indeed according to the electoral vote counting clauses in the Electoral Act under which all the parties contested the 2014 and 2018 Elections- the modified D’Hondt system.
The modified D’Hondt system is extremely difficult to explain to ordinary people, but let me give it a go, just using FFP and NFP in the example, to simply the calculations.
(a) there are 51 seats to allocate to parliament.
(b) divide each qualifying party’s total votes received by 1, 2, 3, etc. going down to 51.
(c) the Fijian Elections Office chooses the MPs from all the parties, with the highest average number of votes.
(d) So if only 1 FFP MP was elected, that MP would represent 227,241 voters.
if 2 were elected each MP would represent 113,621 each (or 227,241/2)
Keep dividing by increasing numbers of MPs until you get to 26.
if 26 were elected these FFP MPs would each represent 8740 votes each (or 227,241/26).
(e) Now if only 1 NFP MP was elected, that MP would represent 33,515
if only 3 NFP MPs were elected they would each represent on average 11,172 voters
(f) by now 21 SODELPA MPs have also been selected: so the total number of MPs already selected for parliament = 26 +21 + 3 = 50. One more to go.
(g) The FEO now has to select the 51st MP and the following are the average number of voters that each party would have, if one extra MP from that party was selected.
Average voters
27th FFP candidate: 8416
22nd SODELPA 8231
4th NFP candidate 8379
(h) You can see that the modified D’Hondt rule as in the Electoral Act requires the FEO to choose the next MP who would give his or her party the higher average number of voters our of these three parties.
Clearly, in this case, the 51st MP will come from the FFP, because the 27th FFP MP will give an overall average of 8416 voters, still higher than the other two parties’ candidates should they be selected.
So if the numbers of votes are correct as stated, then the FEO has followed the law as it stands in the Electoral Act 2014
But is it fair in the common sense of the word?
Especially when the Fiji voting public have been led to believe for five years that every vote should have equal value?
What if there was strict proportionality?
If one accepts the 5% threshold which eliminates the small parties, then the qualifying parties are as follows, with their strictly proportional share of votes and their ideal allocation of seats.
By strict proportionality,
FFP is entitled to 26.2 MPs,
SODELPA 20.9 MPs
and NFP 3.9 MPs.
While I have always argued that the massive 5% threshold has totally destroyed the value of a large numbers of votes which were cast for independents and small parties (some 27,000 votes in the 2014 Election and about 11,000 in the 2018 Election) even I was under the impression that the modified D’Hondt system used by the Fijian Elections Office under the Electoral Act was was still largely proportional.
But I have been proven wrong by the 2018 Election results declared by the Fijian Elections Office.
FFP (with 227,241 votes) has been awarded 27 seats, SODELPA (with 181,072 votes) has been awarded 21 seats and NFP with 33,515 votes, awarded 3 seats- all correctly according to the 2013 Constitution.
But I suggest here that it would have been much “fairer” by any sense of the word to award NFP one more seat and FFP one less, which would reduce the majority of FFP in Parliament to only 1- quite a decisive correction.
Indeed, NZ’s proportional system, internationally accepted, would have allocated FFP 26 seats (one seat less) and NFP 4 (one seat more than currently).
Even a primary school child can understand my arithmetic logic below.
All apparently lawful: according to the Modified D’Hondt system
Assuming that there are no substantial irregularities as claimed by the Opposition Parties, then the above results as declared by the FEO are indeed according to the electoral vote counting clauses in the Electoral Act under which all the parties contested the 2014 and 2018 Elections- the modified D’Hondt system.
The modified D’Hondt system is extremely difficult to explain to ordinary people, but let me give it a go, just using FFP and NFP in the example, to simply the calculations.
(a) there are 51 seats to allocate to parliament.
(b) divide each qualifying party’s total votes received by 1, 2, 3, etc. going down to 51.
(c) the Fijian Elections Office chooses the MPs from all the parties, with the highest average number of votes.
(d) So if only 1 FFP MP was elected, that MP would represent 227,241 voters.
if 2 were elected each MP would represent 113,621 each (or 227,241/2)
Keep dividing by increasing numbers of MPs until you get to 26.
if 26 were elected these FFP MPs would each represent 8740 votes each (or 227,241/26).
(e) Now if only 1 NFP MP was elected, that MP would represent 33,515
if only 3 NFP MPs were elected they would each represent on average 11,172 voters
(f) by now 21 SODELPA MPs have also been selected: so the total number of MPs already selected for parliament = 26 +21 + 3 = 50. One more to go.
(g) The FEO now has to select the 51st MP and the following are the average number of voters that each party would have, if one extra MP from that party was selected.
Average voters
27th FFP candidate: 8416
22nd SODELPA 8231
4th NFP candidate 8379
(h) You can see that the modified D’Hondt rule as in the Electoral Act requires the FEO to choose the next MP who would give his or her party the higher average number of voters our of these three parties.
Clearly, in this case, the 51st MP will come from the FFP, because the 27th FFP MP will give an overall average of 8416 voters, still higher than the other two parties’ candidates should they be selected.
So if the numbers of votes are correct as stated, then the FEO has followed the law as it stands in the Electoral Act 2014
But is it fair in the common sense of the word?
Especially when the Fiji voting public have been led to believe for five years that every vote should have equal value?
What if there was strict proportionality?
If one accepts the 5% threshold which eliminates the small parties, then the qualifying parties are as follows, with their strictly proportional share of votes and their ideal allocation of seats.
By strict proportionality,
FFP is entitled to 26.2 MPs,
SODELPA 20.9 MPs
and NFP 3.9 MPs.