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Options for different electoral systems on the
background of the situation in the future
Bangsamoro Region
Presented by Dr. Peter Koeppinger,
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
International Expert on Government Systems
FAB: “The electoral system shall allow democratic
participation, ensure accountability of public officers
primarily to their constituents and encourage
formation of genuinely principled political parties….”
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p2
The FAB requests that the electoral system has to ensure
accountability of public officers primarily to their constituents.
In a general way this will already be met in the ministerial
form of government by the direct accountability of the government
and its members during the whole legislative period to the members
of the parliament, who are the representatives of the citizens.
But in a more specific way this indicates also the need to
select an electoral system in which at least a majority of members
of the parliament are representing specific constituencies.
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p3
The request of the FAB that the electoral system shall
“encourage formation of genuinely principled political parties” is on
one side related to the characteristics of a ministerial form of
government.
Because what would be the criteria to hold the government
accountable for the members of parliament if not the thematic
issues and objectives, built on the ideology and principles of the
majority parties, promised to the voters before the election?
And how could the members of the majority
parties, supporting and holding accountable their government, act
as a more or less unified group, if they consist only of personalities
and patrons from their respective areas?
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p4
But how can the electoral system encourage the formation of
such “genuinely principled political parties”?
Definitely a system, in which all members of parliament are
just elected in their respective district by majority, is prone to be
dominated by patrons and personalities, and a genuinely principled
political party – if existing – cannot play a relevant role.
Therefore the electoral system has to include selection
mechanisms for the candidates, in which their respective
party, beyond single strong leaders in certain districts, decides with
all its members in a democratic way on its candidates.
This however leads to another necessity: The accessability
for political parties to elections in Bangsamoro has to be bound on
the existence of normal citizens as party members – beside political
office holders and candidates as potential “beneficiaries” from the
elections – and on the existence and compliance with effective
internal democratic decision making and selection procedures in
these parties.
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p5
Preliminary remarks:
The decision on the size of the parliament (number of its
members) is important, as it can support or limit the quality of
democratic participation and the formation of genuinely principled
political parties. In the actual ARMM with about 3,32 Mio
inhabitants (statistical data from 2011) the Legislative Assembly
counts 24 members. With the possible inclusion of Cotabato and the
City of Isabela and some areas in Lanao del Norte in the future
Bangsamoro and the high population growth the population in
Bangsamoro at the time of the first elections in 2016 might increase
to about 4.6 Mio inhabitants. International Standards for regional
parliaments indicate that the number of inhabitants represented by
one member of parliament should not be more than 100,000 in
order to make interaction between the constituents and their
elected representatives not too difficult. A number of 46 members
of the parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region could be
adequate.
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p6
The population of the Bangsamoro area is highly diverse. Among the
Muslim majority are different tribes, living mainly separated in the
island provinces (Basilan, Sulu, Tawi Tawi), Lanao del Sur and
Maguindanao. Furthermore Christian settlers and different groups
of Indigenous People community are spread over the whole
area, being small minorities or even dominant majorities in some
barangay or even municipalities.
The quality of democratic participation will depend on the design of
an electoral system which provides them with the opportunity of
being represented in a fair way in the regional parliament, which –
in the ministerial system – is the centre of the state power.
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p7
The term (legislative period) for which the regional
parliament is elected should be longer than 3 years.
International standard for such parliaments are 4 or 5 years.
However this decision should be considered also in connection
with the elections for the local governments in Bangsamoro.
As the term for local elections is expressively fixed at
three years in the Constitution of 1987, it would be probably
necessary to amend the Constitution, if the term for local
elections in Bangsamoro should be prolongated also to 4 or 5
years.
A solution could be to fix the term initially on 3 years for
both the regional parliament and the local councils in
Bangsamoro and to amend it to 4 or 5 years whenever a
respective amendment of the Constitution can be achieved.
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p8
• Option 1: All members of the parliament are elected in one-seat local
constituencies (districts) by simple majority. In this example you see 40
members of a regional parliament elected each one in his separate
constituency. The election process is simple: each voter has one vote.
Advantage: The constituencies are small, the voters know the candidates. Risk:
Will the winners from the different constituencies work together in the
parliament? What binds them together? Can genuine political parties play a
role – or is it just about representation of local issues?
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p9
First judgement: This option would create in theory a perfect system
of direct accountability of the elected public officers to their local
constituencies. But this is only true if these local representatives
would be selected by genuinely principled political parties, build
on membership of normal citizens, who would hold accountable
the elected representatives after their election and monitor their
performance.
• In the Bangsamoro reality this option would strongly favour the
grip of local dynasties or dominant families on the representation
in the powerful regional parliament. It would make it very difficult
for genuinely principled political parties, organized region wide in
Bangsamoro, to have influence on the selection of successful
candidates in the districts and to play a strong role in the orderly
management and performance of the Bangsamoro parliament.
• It would also make it impossible for minorities spread over the
region to be represented in the regional parliament as long as
they do not have a majority in one of these districts.
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p10
• Option 2: Mixed system direct election and party list, separated. Part of
the members (i.e. 50%) are elected in local districts, the other part
through party lists of genuinely principled political parties for the whole
country/region. Each voter has two votes: one for the representative of his
local district, one for a party list.
List
1,
20
per-
sons
List
2,
20
per-
sons
List
3,
20
per-
sons
20 directly elected district representatives
20 representatives from party lists elected
in accordance to their percentage of votes
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p11
First judgement:
This option would still contain a strong element of direct
accountability of half of all members of parliament to their local
constituents – still with the disadvantage in reality that it would
provide the local dynasties and dominating families with the
possibility of strong representation in the regional parliament.
However in this option the formation of genuinely principled
political parties would be encouraged because they would have the
opportunity to create strong party lists along their respective
principles and advocacies beyond the borders of the different
provinces for the whole Bangsamoro region.
And scattered minorities would have the possibility to be
represented or through inclusion in the party lists of strong regional
principled parties – who would also compete for the votes of these
minorities in order to achieve majorities in the regional parliament –
or through their own minority party list, which could win a seat with
less than 3% of the total votes in Bangsamoro.
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p12
Option 3
Party A (blue) wins 45% of the votes = 18 seats, Party B (green)
35% = 14 seats, Party C (pink) 20 % = 8 seats
Party A with
18 seats, 15
Winners in
Districts, 3 top
From its
Party list
Party B with
14 seats,
4 winners in
Districts, 10
Top from its
Party list
Party C
With 8
Seats, 1
Winner
From
District, 7
Top from
Its party list
Mixed system direct elections and proportional
elections combined, each voter has two votes, one in
His district, one for a party list
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p13
First judgement:
Similar like in option two this option has the disadvantage that it
could still leave much room for local political dynasties to
dominate the regional parliament. And similar to option two this
option has the advantages that it provides genuinely principled
political parties with the opportunity to play an important role
and that it provides scattered minorities in Bangsamoro with the
opportunity to be directly represented in the regional parliament.
Furthermore in comparison with option two it has the advantage
that it is even more inclusive because all seats – not only half of
them – are distributed in accordance to the proportional
representation system.
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p14
Option 4: All members of the regional parliament are elected through party lists of genuinely
principled political parties for the whole country/region. Simple electoral process: Each voter has
one vote. Advantage: genuinely principled political parties will play a strong role. Disadvantages:
Representation of regions/provinces not sure, no direct accountability to electorate.
List
1, 40
persons
List
2, 40
persons
List 3,
40
persons
List
4, 40
persons
List 5,
40
persons
40 representatives of party lists elected according their percentage of votes
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p15
First judgement:
This option would strongly encourage the formation of genuinely
principled political parties organized throughout the whole
Bangsamoro area. They would dominate with the candidates
on their lists – elected in (hopefully!) internal democratic
procedures by the members of these parties – the powerful
regional parliament.
The disadvantage of this option would be that if a strong and
winning political party with its support mainly coming from
part of the Bangsamoro region would put only or mainly
candidates from this part of the region on the top of its list,
the demand of the FAB on an electoral system which “ensures
accountability of public officers primarily to their
constituents” would not be met, and part of the population of
Bangsamoro would not feel to be represented in its political
decision making institutions.
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p16
• Option 4: The election of the members of the parliament takes place in multi-seat
constituencies within the existing provinces through provincial party lists under genuinely
principled political parties in a proportional way. Simple electoral process: Each voter has
one vote. Advantages: Gives parties a strong role in the provinces, where they are strong.
Elected representatives are accountable to citizens in their respective provinces. 40
members of parliament are elected from provincial party lists according to their
percentage of votes in the respective provinces.
Province A
6 representatives
Province B
4 representatives Province C
9 representatives
Province D
11 representatives
Province F
5 representatives
Province E
5 representat.
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p17
First judgement:
With a supposed number of 46 members of the Bangsamoro
parliament this would lead, following the statistical population
data from 2011, to a distribution of 12 seats in the Maguindanao
Province District, 12 seats in the Lanao del Sur Province District, 9
seats in the Sulu Province District, 5 seats in the Basilan Province
District (including Isabela), 4 seats in the Tawi Tawi Province
District and 4 seats in the Cotabato district.
In this option on one side the accountability of public officers
primarily to their constituents would be ensured – as the lists are
presented and voted on in the different provinces so that the
winning candidates would feel accountable to these
constituencies.
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p18
On the other side this option would strongly encourage the
formation of genuinely principled political parties in Bangsamoro, as it
would be these parties with their members, who elect the candidates in
their respective multi-seat districts, and it would be more difficult for the
local political dynasties and dominating families to dictate whole the
provincial list of the party than to do that in smaller one-seat
constituencies.
The formation of principled political parties would also be
encouraged under this option by the fact that only with party
organization along principles and ideologies a party would have a chance
in the diverse ethnic and tribal reality of the different provinces in
Bangsamoro to win seats in all parts of the region and to achieve
influence or even a majority in the regional parliament.
The multi-seat constituencies would also provide scattered
minorities in the different parts of Bangsamoro with the opportunity to
be included into the representation in the powerful parliament – namely
through their inclusion in the party lists of strong regional principled
parties – who would also compete for the votes of these minorities in
the provinces, where they are relevant, in order to achieve majorities in
the regional parliament.
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p19
Conclusions:
• Different from the situation in countries with existing strong
principled political parties, built on dues paying members, the
option 1 (direct simple majority vote in one-seat districts) would
not produce stable majorities in the Bangsamoro regional
parliament and therefore would not provide the government of
the region with continuous support and stability, because it would
be a multitude of local dynasties and dominant political families
who would be the main beneficiaries of such an electoral system.
• The necessity to create stable majorities in the parliament for the
stability of government – which is an important challenge in the
ministerial form of government – requests an electoral system,
which is strongly encouraging the formation of principled political
parties and the control of the regional parliament by them.
Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p20
This can be in form of one dominant party or by a coalition of two
or three of them, being inclusive also for the diverse groups and
minorities in the whole region through their principles and
ideological orientation instead of one issue or one group or one
locality advocacies.
Under this aspect of creating stability and inclusiveness of the
political system of Bangsamoro as a precondition of its success
and sustainability options 2, 3 and 5 seem to have clearly more
advantages than options 1 and 4.

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Options for electoral systems in bangsamoro

  • 1. Options for different electoral systems on the background of the situation in the future Bangsamoro Region Presented by Dr. Peter Koeppinger, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung International Expert on Government Systems FAB: “The electoral system shall allow democratic participation, ensure accountability of public officers primarily to their constituents and encourage formation of genuinely principled political parties….”
  • 2. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p2 The FAB requests that the electoral system has to ensure accountability of public officers primarily to their constituents. In a general way this will already be met in the ministerial form of government by the direct accountability of the government and its members during the whole legislative period to the members of the parliament, who are the representatives of the citizens. But in a more specific way this indicates also the need to select an electoral system in which at least a majority of members of the parliament are representing specific constituencies.
  • 3. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p3 The request of the FAB that the electoral system shall “encourage formation of genuinely principled political parties” is on one side related to the characteristics of a ministerial form of government. Because what would be the criteria to hold the government accountable for the members of parliament if not the thematic issues and objectives, built on the ideology and principles of the majority parties, promised to the voters before the election? And how could the members of the majority parties, supporting and holding accountable their government, act as a more or less unified group, if they consist only of personalities and patrons from their respective areas?
  • 4. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p4 But how can the electoral system encourage the formation of such “genuinely principled political parties”? Definitely a system, in which all members of parliament are just elected in their respective district by majority, is prone to be dominated by patrons and personalities, and a genuinely principled political party – if existing – cannot play a relevant role. Therefore the electoral system has to include selection mechanisms for the candidates, in which their respective party, beyond single strong leaders in certain districts, decides with all its members in a democratic way on its candidates. This however leads to another necessity: The accessability for political parties to elections in Bangsamoro has to be bound on the existence of normal citizens as party members – beside political office holders and candidates as potential “beneficiaries” from the elections – and on the existence and compliance with effective internal democratic decision making and selection procedures in these parties.
  • 5. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p5 Preliminary remarks: The decision on the size of the parliament (number of its members) is important, as it can support or limit the quality of democratic participation and the formation of genuinely principled political parties. In the actual ARMM with about 3,32 Mio inhabitants (statistical data from 2011) the Legislative Assembly counts 24 members. With the possible inclusion of Cotabato and the City of Isabela and some areas in Lanao del Norte in the future Bangsamoro and the high population growth the population in Bangsamoro at the time of the first elections in 2016 might increase to about 4.6 Mio inhabitants. International Standards for regional parliaments indicate that the number of inhabitants represented by one member of parliament should not be more than 100,000 in order to make interaction between the constituents and their elected representatives not too difficult. A number of 46 members of the parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region could be adequate.
  • 6. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p6 The population of the Bangsamoro area is highly diverse. Among the Muslim majority are different tribes, living mainly separated in the island provinces (Basilan, Sulu, Tawi Tawi), Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao. Furthermore Christian settlers and different groups of Indigenous People community are spread over the whole area, being small minorities or even dominant majorities in some barangay or even municipalities. The quality of democratic participation will depend on the design of an electoral system which provides them with the opportunity of being represented in a fair way in the regional parliament, which – in the ministerial system – is the centre of the state power.
  • 7. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p7 The term (legislative period) for which the regional parliament is elected should be longer than 3 years. International standard for such parliaments are 4 or 5 years. However this decision should be considered also in connection with the elections for the local governments in Bangsamoro. As the term for local elections is expressively fixed at three years in the Constitution of 1987, it would be probably necessary to amend the Constitution, if the term for local elections in Bangsamoro should be prolongated also to 4 or 5 years. A solution could be to fix the term initially on 3 years for both the regional parliament and the local councils in Bangsamoro and to amend it to 4 or 5 years whenever a respective amendment of the Constitution can be achieved.
  • 8. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p8 • Option 1: All members of the parliament are elected in one-seat local constituencies (districts) by simple majority. In this example you see 40 members of a regional parliament elected each one in his separate constituency. The election process is simple: each voter has one vote. Advantage: The constituencies are small, the voters know the candidates. Risk: Will the winners from the different constituencies work together in the parliament? What binds them together? Can genuine political parties play a role – or is it just about representation of local issues?
  • 9. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p9 First judgement: This option would create in theory a perfect system of direct accountability of the elected public officers to their local constituencies. But this is only true if these local representatives would be selected by genuinely principled political parties, build on membership of normal citizens, who would hold accountable the elected representatives after their election and monitor their performance. • In the Bangsamoro reality this option would strongly favour the grip of local dynasties or dominant families on the representation in the powerful regional parliament. It would make it very difficult for genuinely principled political parties, organized region wide in Bangsamoro, to have influence on the selection of successful candidates in the districts and to play a strong role in the orderly management and performance of the Bangsamoro parliament. • It would also make it impossible for minorities spread over the region to be represented in the regional parliament as long as they do not have a majority in one of these districts.
  • 10. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p10 • Option 2: Mixed system direct election and party list, separated. Part of the members (i.e. 50%) are elected in local districts, the other part through party lists of genuinely principled political parties for the whole country/region. Each voter has two votes: one for the representative of his local district, one for a party list. List 1, 20 per- sons List 2, 20 per- sons List 3, 20 per- sons 20 directly elected district representatives 20 representatives from party lists elected in accordance to their percentage of votes
  • 11. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p11 First judgement: This option would still contain a strong element of direct accountability of half of all members of parliament to their local constituents – still with the disadvantage in reality that it would provide the local dynasties and dominating families with the possibility of strong representation in the regional parliament. However in this option the formation of genuinely principled political parties would be encouraged because they would have the opportunity to create strong party lists along their respective principles and advocacies beyond the borders of the different provinces for the whole Bangsamoro region. And scattered minorities would have the possibility to be represented or through inclusion in the party lists of strong regional principled parties – who would also compete for the votes of these minorities in order to achieve majorities in the regional parliament – or through their own minority party list, which could win a seat with less than 3% of the total votes in Bangsamoro.
  • 12. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p12 Option 3 Party A (blue) wins 45% of the votes = 18 seats, Party B (green) 35% = 14 seats, Party C (pink) 20 % = 8 seats Party A with 18 seats, 15 Winners in Districts, 3 top From its Party list Party B with 14 seats, 4 winners in Districts, 10 Top from its Party list Party C With 8 Seats, 1 Winner From District, 7 Top from Its party list Mixed system direct elections and proportional elections combined, each voter has two votes, one in His district, one for a party list
  • 13. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p13 First judgement: Similar like in option two this option has the disadvantage that it could still leave much room for local political dynasties to dominate the regional parliament. And similar to option two this option has the advantages that it provides genuinely principled political parties with the opportunity to play an important role and that it provides scattered minorities in Bangsamoro with the opportunity to be directly represented in the regional parliament. Furthermore in comparison with option two it has the advantage that it is even more inclusive because all seats – not only half of them – are distributed in accordance to the proportional representation system.
  • 14. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p14 Option 4: All members of the regional parliament are elected through party lists of genuinely principled political parties for the whole country/region. Simple electoral process: Each voter has one vote. Advantage: genuinely principled political parties will play a strong role. Disadvantages: Representation of regions/provinces not sure, no direct accountability to electorate. List 1, 40 persons List 2, 40 persons List 3, 40 persons List 4, 40 persons List 5, 40 persons 40 representatives of party lists elected according their percentage of votes
  • 15. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p15 First judgement: This option would strongly encourage the formation of genuinely principled political parties organized throughout the whole Bangsamoro area. They would dominate with the candidates on their lists – elected in (hopefully!) internal democratic procedures by the members of these parties – the powerful regional parliament. The disadvantage of this option would be that if a strong and winning political party with its support mainly coming from part of the Bangsamoro region would put only or mainly candidates from this part of the region on the top of its list, the demand of the FAB on an electoral system which “ensures accountability of public officers primarily to their constituents” would not be met, and part of the population of Bangsamoro would not feel to be represented in its political decision making institutions.
  • 16. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p16 • Option 4: The election of the members of the parliament takes place in multi-seat constituencies within the existing provinces through provincial party lists under genuinely principled political parties in a proportional way. Simple electoral process: Each voter has one vote. Advantages: Gives parties a strong role in the provinces, where they are strong. Elected representatives are accountable to citizens in their respective provinces. 40 members of parliament are elected from provincial party lists according to their percentage of votes in the respective provinces. Province A 6 representatives Province B 4 representatives Province C 9 representatives Province D 11 representatives Province F 5 representatives Province E 5 representat.
  • 17. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p17 First judgement: With a supposed number of 46 members of the Bangsamoro parliament this would lead, following the statistical population data from 2011, to a distribution of 12 seats in the Maguindanao Province District, 12 seats in the Lanao del Sur Province District, 9 seats in the Sulu Province District, 5 seats in the Basilan Province District (including Isabela), 4 seats in the Tawi Tawi Province District and 4 seats in the Cotabato district. In this option on one side the accountability of public officers primarily to their constituents would be ensured – as the lists are presented and voted on in the different provinces so that the winning candidates would feel accountable to these constituencies.
  • 18. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p18 On the other side this option would strongly encourage the formation of genuinely principled political parties in Bangsamoro, as it would be these parties with their members, who elect the candidates in their respective multi-seat districts, and it would be more difficult for the local political dynasties and dominating families to dictate whole the provincial list of the party than to do that in smaller one-seat constituencies. The formation of principled political parties would also be encouraged under this option by the fact that only with party organization along principles and ideologies a party would have a chance in the diverse ethnic and tribal reality of the different provinces in Bangsamoro to win seats in all parts of the region and to achieve influence or even a majority in the regional parliament. The multi-seat constituencies would also provide scattered minorities in the different parts of Bangsamoro with the opportunity to be included into the representation in the powerful parliament – namely through their inclusion in the party lists of strong regional principled parties – who would also compete for the votes of these minorities in the provinces, where they are relevant, in order to achieve majorities in the regional parliament.
  • 19. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p19 Conclusions: • Different from the situation in countries with existing strong principled political parties, built on dues paying members, the option 1 (direct simple majority vote in one-seat districts) would not produce stable majorities in the Bangsamoro regional parliament and therefore would not provide the government of the region with continuous support and stability, because it would be a multitude of local dynasties and dominant political families who would be the main beneficiaries of such an electoral system. • The necessity to create stable majorities in the parliament for the stability of government – which is an important challenge in the ministerial form of government – requests an electoral system, which is strongly encouraging the formation of principled political parties and the control of the regional parliament by them.
  • 20. Electoral Systems in the Bangsamoro Reality, p20 This can be in form of one dominant party or by a coalition of two or three of them, being inclusive also for the diverse groups and minorities in the whole region through their principles and ideological orientation instead of one issue or one group or one locality advocacies. Under this aspect of creating stability and inclusiveness of the political system of Bangsamoro as a precondition of its success and sustainability options 2, 3 and 5 seem to have clearly more advantages than options 1 and 4.