An electoral system

Building up, maintaining and using an electoral system by Frank Owarish

Introduction

An electoral system is a system whereby people are provided with the opportunity to vote, thereby elect their political representatives in a free and fair manner. Practically all democracies today are of the so-called representative type. Experimentation with direct democracy is going on in the USA, basically using electronic means and Barack Obama has broken new ground in this respect using new technologies.

Tribute

I was part of a privileged group that work on electoral system and I wish here to pay tribute to members of the group before explaining the electoral system as such. I am relying on my memory to cite the names and there could well be omissions. Consideration has also to be given to the fact that there were people before our group and subsequent to our group that also made significant contribution to the electoral system which has kept on growing and flourishing.

My personal tribute goes to Joseph Leroy (living example of what a fair person should be), Patrick Balmano (the best legal mind there could be), Harold Yerriah, Philipe Houeix, Madhoo, Ernest, Pillay, Padaruth, Lisette Oudin, Jacqueline Rousseau, Monique Joson, Mrs. Frederick, Legrigore, Marcel Labour ... (as I remember I shall keep on adding the names). By my evaluation then and now, that was an outstanding group indeed for a work well done. I worked most closely with Harold Yerriah and with the others from time to time; we briefed/trained hundreds of Polling Officers and Returning Officers. The experience was always enjoyable even under pressure. Beyond work, the group mentioned by name above was like family to me and practically all of them came to my wedding. In addition to the work we did, during the spare time I had the opportunity of playing bridge with the senior staff while I was in a junior capacity. Once one of the senior staff stated that the group playing bridge should be limited to the senior staff; however he was overruled by the other senior staff and later on when I had an opportunity to play in a group that included him and he was rather pleasantly surprised by my performance and I earned his respect so to speak. One way or the other those are the very best people I could have worked with on such a worthwhile venture and we made individual as well as group contributions. Harold Yerriah was a very interesting person; we would have philosophical discussions and we often ventured to Teilhard de Chardin (his favorite) and discussed of the apha and omega of life. Joseph Leroy would discuss opera and I learned about what it takes to direct a production. As colleagues we exchanged records (at the time); I benefited from listening to My Fair Lady (I was prepared (musically) to get to the church on time for my wedding). La Cumparsita etc.

The electoral system

The country was divided in several areas called constituencies for lack of a better term. There were several political parties and these would put up their candidates for specific constituencies where they  feel that they had a chance to win the seat. The party that won the majority of members would be the majority in parliament and would from the government and thus head the executive machinery while also performing in a legislative role.

The electoral work consisted of ensuring that there were the most comprehensive and up to date listing of people entitled to vote (there was a voting age of 21 at the time). Comprehensive means that whoever live in the area could come to registration sessions and have their names added to the electoral register; up to date means taking into account of people who move from one area to another and of course of people who pass on to the next world. Following registrations sessions, work was done to compile electoral list for each area within a constituency. Review sessions were the held for political party representatives and whoever might have had an issue with specific listing e.g. raising question about dead people being still on the list or that there were people who had been omitted. Based on these reviews the electoral lists were finalized for use on election day.

Meanwhile the candidates of the political parties got involved in campaigning.

Election day

Come election day, there were several polling stations within each constituency to make it as convenient as possible for the electors to come and vote and generally they did; the turnout was always relatively high. The Polling Officers always did an excellent job. At the end of election day, the boxes containing the ballots were sealed and taken to a secure place (with observers from the political parties).

Count

The following day was devoted to counting of the ballots and at the end of which the Returning Officer (representatve of the Electoral Commission) would designate the winner. At times there were recounts. The Returning Officer would make the final result. Recount case could be taken to court (the judiciary) if needed.

An overall tally was then made and the leader of the winning party would then become the Prime Minister. He or she would then select from among close collaborators to constitute a government with ministers who would head specific government departments.

The election was valid for a period of time generally five years after which general elections would be held. In the meantime there were times e when partial elections had to be organized a specific constituency to replace candidates who passed away or resigned.

At times after the general elections there were no clear winning parties and parties would enter into negotiation to create a coalition in order to constitute a majority and thus able to from the government. There were often several rounds of negotiation.