Hoy off the mark on MMP

In his editorial "Voter education more important than system" (Citizen, July 11) Claire Hoy unfortunately misrepresents the proposed MMP election system. He attempts to argue that many politicians "won't be elected but instead will be chosen from a list or party 'representatives' chosen in the back rooms of the political parties themselves." Obviously, Hoy has not read or understood the Citizen's Assembly report. If he had, he would understand that list MPPs would be 100% elected by the public - people on the lists would only win seats if the public specifically votes for their party. The only difference in MMP is that the public would vote for a group of representatives, instead of for an individual.

However, the most important point that is missed by Hoy is that before the election, not only do the party lists have to be published, but the method used to select the members on the list also has to be published. What political party in their right mind would publicly publish the fact that they held secret back room meetings to handpick party hacks for their list? Not only would voters be turned off, but the other parties would joyfully be able to accuse the offending party of being undemocratic. The far more realistic scenario would be that political party members would hold democratic elections amongst themselves to select the representatives for their party list. This is exactly what happens in the many countries using an MMP election system.

Darryl Bandoro