Business Standard

An unfair landslide?

The fairness or unfairness of the first-past-the-post voting system goes beyond mere vote shares

UK election
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Photo: Freepik

Mihir S Sharma
The past fortnight has shown us that our electoral system can appear fundamentally unfair. Constituency-based first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting, the electoral process used for legislatures in India, England, and the United States (US), seems to be only marginally reflective of real preferences in countries with only two real parties, like the US. But the moment that you have a more fragmented polity, this begins to fall apart.

In the United Kingdom’s general election, for example, the Labour Party won a historic majority of 412 seats out of 650. That’s over 60 per cent, closing in on two-thirds. Yet they
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper

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