In this article you will learn about the First Past the Post System in Political Science.
First Past the Post System
First Past the Post System is also called Relative Majority Vote System. Under this system, in an election the candidate who secures more votes than every other fellow contestant in a constituency is declared elected as their representative to the Legislature. In the counting of votes only valid votes are taken into consideration. Invalid votes are rejected. The counting is done by the Returning Officer and his staff in the presence of all the candidates or their nominees. In other words we can say that victory in an election is determined on the basis of the principle of relative majority of votes or the first past the post principle. This system has been in operation in a large number of democratic countries, which includes India, UK, USA, and several others.
This system is criticised on the ground that it enables a candidate to win even when he is not getting a real majority (51%) of votes. In the above cited example, candidate C got elected with just 3000 out of 10000 popular votes pulled in the election. He/she got elected with just 30% votes and was not with a real majority. It is held that 51% of valid votes polled i.e. an absolute majority of votes and not simple or relative majority of votes should be fixed as the criteria for winning an election. This viewpoint has merit but it also has several in-build operational problems. For example in case in an election when no candidate gets 51% of votes, as is mostly the case in a multi-cornered contest (when the number of contesting candidates is from 3 to 25), then either a re-polling, involving the first two or three candidates, would have to be held (second ballot system) or some other way would have to be devised for deciding the winner. All this can cause delay, inefficiency, additional expenditure and other such problems. It has been precisely for such reasons that the Relative Vote Victory System is being followed in almost all democratic states. It is the best available, if not the best, system of deciding the winners in elections.
But it is observed that the First Past the Post System is not a very good system but it happens to be the best available very simple system which is being used by most of the democratic countries in the world. Some political scientists suggest that for removing some of its defects of the First Past the Post System, there should be used a combination of some principle systems. In other words they favour a mixed election system.
This article on First Past the Post System in Political Science is contributed by Dipshikha Anand. If you like LawStudyPoint.com do follow us on our Twitter handle.