First Past the Post - Disadvantages 19 How to be a minority and hate it.

FTPT disadvantages Excluding Minority Parties from Fair Representation  Here we take the word "fair" to mean that a party which wins approximately ten percent of the votes should win approximately ten percent of the parliamentary seats.

FTPT disadvantages Excluding Minorities from Fair Representation  As a rule, under FPTP, parties put up the most broadly acceptable candidate in a particular district so as to avoid alienating the majority of electors  Canada!

FTPT disadvantages Excluding Women from Parliament  The "most broadly acceptable candidate" syndrome also affects the ability of women to be elected to parliamentary office, because they are often less likely to be selected as candidates by male-dominated party structures.  Evidence across the world suggests that women are less likely to be elected to parliament under plurality-majority systems.

FTPT disadvantages Exaggerating "Regionalism”  This is where one party wins all the seats in a province or district. In some situations,  FPTP tends to create regions where one party, through winning a majority of votes in the region, wins all, or nearly all, of the parliamentary seats.  This both excludes regional minorities from representation and reinforces the perception the politics is a battleground defined by who you are and where you live, rather than what you believe in.

FTPT disadvantages Leaving a Large Number of "Wasted Votes"  Votes which do not go towards the election of any candidate are often referred to as 'wasted votes.'  Related to "regionalism” above is the prevalence of wasted votes, when minority party supporters begin to feel that they have no realistic hope of ever electing a candidate of their choice.  This can be a particular danger in democracies, where alienation from the political system increases the likelihood that extremists will be able to mobilize anti- system movements.

FTPT disadvantages Being Unresponsive to Changes in Public Opinion  A pattern of geographically-concentrated electoral support in a country means that one party can maintain exclusive executive control in the face of a substantial drop in popular support. (Liberal party of Canada)  A fall from sixty percent to forty percent of a party's popular vote nationally, may in fact mean nothing. (1997 federal election)

FTPT disadvantages Encouraging the Development of Ethnic Parties  FPTP can encourage parties to base their campaigns and policy platforms on hostile conceptions of clan, ethnicity, race, or regionalism.  There was no incentive for parties to make appeals outside their home region and cultural-political base