Our democracy needs changing

Essentially there are two kinds of democracy: 1) Proportional Representation and 2) a Constituency system.

After South Africa emerged as a democracy debate raged as to which voting system we would use and the Proportional Representations system was chosen. This system functions essentially along these lines: rather than voting for an individual one votes for a party. According to the percentage (proportion) of the voters that vote for your party equals the percentage of seats you receive in National or local government (assembly). Each party chooses the candidates that they want to represent them.

However, a Constituency system works as follows: every single area of a country is divided into small segments. In each segment an individual politician has to canvass the votes of the people in that segment (constituency). The person who wins the majority of the votes in that segment then becomes the leader and representative for that segment.

In my view the Proportional Representation system it is severely flawed and is challenging our democracy.

Firstly, there is no accountability; when the party or an individual fails to fulfil their promises they hide behind one another and no one is held accountable. This is due to the fact that bad local and national leaders can hide behind the party and the party can hide behind the excuse of 'it was one bad individual'. In the Constituency system the voters know the face and name of their local leader and that person is held accountable if they don't fulfil their promises.

The second reason is that the 'leader' is not answerable to the voter, but rather to the party. As a result the 'leader' has to tow the party line or face loosing their job.

In our current political climate it is essential that politicians start being held accountable, and that is best handled by changing the way that we run our democracy.