this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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@DeweyOxberger well, as someone who voted to change the electoral system and got what I wanted (the country changed to Mixed Member Proportional voting aka MMP, I can report from the other side...
We have found it's Winston all the way down.
He's a populist centrist and a bit of a troll, and he has managed to position himself politically in such a way that waiting for Winston to hammer out deals so we can find out who the government is, is a pretty normal here.
We're waiting right now for him in fact. The party with the most votes can't govern without him.
It's still way better than FPP though.
Any reasonable electoral system will consistently elect people who represent something close to the average will of all the voters. Sounds like the system is working correctly.
I'm not complaining. I like the system.
But it is a quirk that there have been times when almost half the voters voted for either left or centre left, almost half the voters voted for right or centre right, and then we wait around for weeks while Winston (who only got 6% or whatever) decides which half should get to govern.
Same principle as swing states I guess. It's just amusing that it's always the same specific person, especially given his personality.
The great thing about MMP is the proportionality often has a moderating effect. It annoys me when the left are in power (Winston won't let the Green Party get their way on some things) but it feels like a saving grace when the right wing are in power (Winston will also not let the neoliberal libertarians get their way on some things). So it's working as intended.