Pros And Cons Of The Proportional Representation

Every general election which has been held in Ireland since receiving it’s independence in 1922 has been under the system known as; Proportional Representation through a single transferable vote (PR-STV). The system came to Ireland as it was popular with British electoral reformers in the late 19th century and was seen as a solution which would assist with the crisis that was Home Rule. PRSTV was deemed to be particularly appropriate to this case as it guaranteed minority representation. The president of the Proportional Representation (PR) Party in Britain came to Dublin to give a lecture on the voting system and this resulted in the formation of a PR Society in Ireland of which Arthur Griffith, Irish nationalist and founder of the political party Sinn Fein was a member. This event played a key role in moulding the future of electoral law in Ireland as it meant that there was strong support for PR in favour of the British single member plurality (SMP) system. (Gallagher,1987)
Supporters of Proportional Representation have come up with a range of ideas and distinctions within the system since the

The voter is presented with a list of possible candidates to choose from, the voter then orders the candidates in order of preference labelling their most preferred candidate as number one their second most preferred candidate as number two and so on. Though voters may indicate as few or as many preferences as they like. Data from the IRISH NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY estimate that the average voter expresses 3.9 preferences. (Coakley and Gallagehr, 2009) It still remains that each individual has only one vote and is instructing exactly how he or she wishes it to be used. Once the votes have been cast understanding of the system becomes more hazy but it still stands that PR-STV is easily understood in the way in which the voter needs to grasp it. (Coakley and Gallagher,