On Aug 22, 2008, at 12:12 , Raph Frank wrote:
On 8/22/08, Juho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
In Finland where the number of candidates is relatively high some
less
obvious candidates may have some trouble getting in to the lists
but on the
other hand some well known figures (that have become popular (and
respected)
in other areas than politics) tend to get offers from multiple
parties to
join their lists (even as an independent candidate on their list,
without
becoming formally a party member).
Would they be expected to vote with the party if they do end up
getting elected?
Yes, in general members of some group in the parliament are expected
to vote the same way most of the time. Different parties have
somewhat different attitude. In some questions the groups explicitly
give free hands to their members. (I believe the constitution says
something about the independent decision making of the
representatives, and I don't like at least sanctions very much.)
Is the theory that they will pull in more than 1 seat's worth of
votes, so it is worth
having them on the list no matter what they do?
I guess any votes are welcome. The elected candidates are likely to
be part of the team in any case and increase the strength of the
party. Also candidates that fail to become elected are very
beneficial (their votes will be inherited by others).
Under PR-STV, the whole vote management thing means that parties
cannot
just let their candidates run completely independent campaigns and
also that
the number of candidates run must be controlled based on tactical
considerations.
In open lists all candidates are expected to campaign as much as they
can and to collect as many votes as they can. It is also beneficial
to nominate as many candidates as possible (even few additional votes
are better than none).
Juho
In my view, it is one of the weaknesses of PR-STV. It means that a
party
cannot just run lots of candidates and let the voters decided without
weakening its position. Likewise, voters cannot just rank the
candidates
of the party any way they like (or at least they are encouraged to
rank
a specific candidate first choice)
I like the rule where they use the ballots from the general
election to decide
how to fill casual vacancies. This creates an incentive for the
parties to
run spare candidates so that casual vacancies will be filled by the
same party.
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