Press for ‘proportional representation’ in parliament

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Today I had the opportunity to read The Sunday Gleaner with Howard Mitchell’s commentary. I must commend him on this excellent overview of the role of the citizens, and the role of their parliamentary representatives.

For too long, the citizens have allowed the MPs to make decisions in Parliament on their behalf, without consultation with the people whose lives will be affected by those decisions.

The only additional action that I would recommend for more participation in our governance is that of amending the constitution to one of ‘proportional representation’ whereby third parties and independent candidates are allocated seats in Parliament proportional to the number of votes cast for them in an election. If this had been the case in prior elections, the NDM would have secured four seats, and the MGPPP one seat. This would break the tribalistic two-party control of Parliament, and foster more people’s participation in the governance of the country.

HERU ISHAKAMUSA MENELIK