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February 23, 2015

Comments

This is a tangential issue but I find it interesting that there is no mention of the skewed seat allocation, an issue to which you had paid a great deal of attention a few posts back. You had then lamented that the BJP had a majority of seats even though a majority had not voted for it. Admittedly, a majority here *have* voted for AAP but still about 45% have not voted for it, and yet the opposition has precisely 3 seats.

Of course, you are not alone - indeed, none of those complaining about the BJP a few months back have seen fit to mention the skewed nature of the seat allocation this time around. The reactions strengthen my suspicions that the complaints are result contingent - if the "right" party gets elected, then we forget the issue but we scream loudly if the "wrong" party is the beneficiary. I am afraid this is no way to pursue voting reform.

As I said, this is a tangential issue and I have no desire to discuss this further. There are many important issues you raise which do deserve discussion. I leave it to you to have the last word (if you want).

Suresh, fair point and I’m with you entirely. To be truly representative, AAP should have 55% seats, rather than the 95% they now have.

We had previously discussed (instant) runoff voting to help mitigate such outcomes. But in this case, runoff voting would not have changed the final seat share much. In the few constituencies where AAP didn't have a simple majority of votes, they were the second largest. Runoff voting where no party had a simple majority would have actually helped AAP (i.e., Congress and BSP votes would mostly have rolled over to AAP). So in this case, another more complex system would need to be considered such that # of seats reflect actual vote share.

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