First Past the Post Method - A Cure or Worse than a Disease

Constitutional Law

India uses First past the post method for electing the members of Lok Sabha. This system has been practiced from centuries but in a present scenario this system is creating discrepancies. This system is neither providing fair representation nor preventing coalition. Therefore, there is a requirement to reform the system for strengthening and restoring the faith of people as after 16th Lok Sabha after seeing the result it was denigrated. India is now ready to shift to another electoral system, unlike previous years, as now literacy rate has been increased, political awareness has also increased because of increasing participation. An alternative methods are scrutinized in this research paper which can be adopted. But due to the flaws in that system too, it would not be as effective as an election system should be. Finally, an alternative was found which is the mixture of first past the post method and proportional representation known as “mixed member proportion.” This is a German model which can be practiced in India. There are a few drawbacks in this system also but through some modification this system can be effective in India. This paper highlights its advantages and it will conceal all the limitation of first past the post method.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.