By Michael Peter, The Sight News
Abuja: The Democratic People’s Congress has called for the adoption of proportional representation in electing State and Federal Legislators, insisting that it will promote inclusive democratic practice, peaceful co-existence, development and stability in the country.
In a Statement sent to The Sight News, the Party maintained that Proportional representation will enhance and consolidate constitutional governance by ensuring that smaller political parties that are able to obtain appreciable votes secure legislative seats in proportion to the votes received.
“In this way, small political parties can have their voices heard in State and Federal Legislatures. It will encourage people to come out en masse to vote as all votes are counted and count in the overall result and seats won which represent the interest groups in the legislative constituencies”.
According to the statement, “Proportional representation means that the number of seats won by a political party is proportionate to the number of votes received.
“In election under a proportional representative voting system, if 25% of voters support a particular party, then roughly 25% of seats will be won by that party. It is a departure from the current winner-takes-all system obtainable in Nigeria, where a political party that scored the highest votes wins all the seats despite the low margin of votes between the winner and the loser”.
