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Return to Singapore’s previous system of electing only one candidate per constituency.
Human rights activist group MARUAH issued this call on Monday as they presented a position paper in which they argued that the current group representation constituency (GRC) system allows "free-riders" to enter politics on the coattails of more established party members.
They pointed out that the GRC system, which was introduced in the late 1980s and enlarged in the mid-1990s, had the stated aim of ensuring minority representation in Parliament, but has since been widely criticised for creating an unlevel playing field between the ruling People’s Action Party and opposition parties.
Trust Singaporean voters to vote on merit, not on ethnic lines and should this fail, beef up ethnic minority representation by installing the closest losers as Members of Parliament (MPs) through the addition of seats, MARUAH said.
Through a return to the single member constituency (SMC) system, it is probable that elections would return a sufficient number of ethnic minority MPs, they said, pointing out that before GRCs were created, ethnic minorities were not under-represented in Parliament.
The group's report is the second of a series of papers on electoral reform in Singapore, the first of which touched on the secrecy of electoral votes.
Why now? MARUAH president Braema Mathi says it's time to take a good, hard look at Singapore’s electoral system while there is still time for change ahead of the next general election in 2016.
"In the current context of Singapore, where the population is becoming more mature in its thinking and approach, more discerning and more questioning, I think it's important that we do an appraisal of our electoral systems and offer suggestions as to what we think needs changing and why," she said in a phone interview with Yahoo! Singapore on Monday.
The paper argues that the GRC system, in Braema's words, "has outlived its purpose".
"We need to revisit this (the effectiveness of the GRC system)," said Braema. "We have tabulated all the arguments in Parliament and find that some of their arguments are very interesting, but nevertheless, it never came as a referendum (factoring in the views of the electorate), and was decided in Parliament. After so many years, it's ready for a review."
In Singapore's May 2011 general election, the People's Action Party (PAP) saw its share of the popular vote drop to a historic low of 60.14 per cent. Yet, PAP candidates won 81 out of 87 seats in parliament.
Human rights activist group MARUAH issued this call on Monday as they presented a position paper in which they argued that the current group representation constituency (GRC) system allows "free-riders" to enter politics on the coattails of more established party members.
They pointed out that the GRC system, which was introduced in the late 1980s and enlarged in the mid-1990s, had the stated aim of ensuring minority representation in Parliament, but has since been widely criticised for creating an unlevel playing field between the ruling People’s Action Party and opposition parties.
Trust Singaporean voters to vote on merit, not on ethnic lines and should this fail, beef up ethnic minority representation by installing the closest losers as Members of Parliament (MPs) through the addition of seats, MARUAH said.
Through a return to the single member constituency (SMC) system, it is probable that elections would return a sufficient number of ethnic minority MPs, they said, pointing out that before GRCs were created, ethnic minorities were not under-represented in Parliament.
The group's report is the second of a series of papers on electoral reform in Singapore, the first of which touched on the secrecy of electoral votes.
Why now? MARUAH president Braema Mathi says it's time to take a good, hard look at Singapore’s electoral system while there is still time for change ahead of the next general election in 2016.
"In the current context of Singapore, where the population is becoming more mature in its thinking and approach, more discerning and more questioning, I think it's important that we do an appraisal of our electoral systems and offer suggestions as to what we think needs changing and why," she said in a phone interview with Yahoo! Singapore on Monday.
The paper argues that the GRC system, in Braema's words, "has outlived its purpose".
"We need to revisit this (the effectiveness of the GRC system)," said Braema. "We have tabulated all the arguments in Parliament and find that some of their arguments are very interesting, but nevertheless, it never came as a referendum (factoring in the views of the electorate), and was decided in Parliament. After so many years, it's ready for a review."
In Singapore's May 2011 general election, the People's Action Party (PAP) saw its share of the popular vote drop to a historic low of 60.14 per cent. Yet, PAP candidates won 81 out of 87 seats in parliament.
