Constituencies and methods of election: direct and indirect, open and secret, single and plural voting

1. Constituency: meaning

A constituency is the unit, usually a territorial area, into which the electorate is divided for the purpose of electing representatives. The voters of a constituency elect one or more members, who represent it in the legislature. Dividing the country is necessary because a whole nation cannot conveniently vote for a whole legislature as one body, and because voters need a representative they can know and approach.

2. Kinds of constituency

(a) Territorial and functional

A territorial constituency is a geographical area; all voters living in it vote together, whatever their occupation. Almost all modern legislatures use territorial constituencies. A functional (occupational, vocational) constituency groups voters by profession or interest: doctors, lawyers, workers, industrialists. Examples are the graduates' and teachers' constituencies of Indian Legislative Councils (each electing one-twelfth of the members, Article 171(3)), the vocational panels of the Irish Senate, and the British university seats abolished in 1950. The comparison is drawn out in the note on representation.

(b) Single-member and multi-member

A single-member constituency elects one representative. Britain, the USA (House of Representatives) and the Lok Sabha use it.

• Merits: small area, so close contact between member and voters; the voter knows the candidate; elections are cheap and simple; clear responsibility of the member to the constituency; it tends to produce stable majorities and a two-party system.
• Limitations: minorities go unrepresented, since the candidate with the most votes wins everything; seats won are out of proportion to votes; the member becomes absorbed in local matters at the cost of national ones; and boundaries can be manipulated (gerrymandering, named after Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, whose 1812 district looked like a salamander).

A multi-member constituency elects several representatives. It is required for proportional representation (the Irish Dáil, the Rajya Sabha elections by each State Assembly, list systems in Europe).

• Merits: minorities can win seats; wider choice; members take a broader view; gerrymandering is harder; abler candidates may be elected.
• Limitations: large areas weaken contact between member and voters; responsibility is divided among several members; elections are costlier and more complex; and it can encourage a multiplicity of parties.

(c) General and reserved

A general constituency is open to all candidates. A reserved constituency is one in which only members of a particular group may stand, although all voters vote. India reserves Lok Sabha and Assembly seats for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Articles 330 and 332): after the 2008 delimitation, 84 and 47 Lok Sabha seats respectively. Reservation within a joint electorate replaced the separate electorates of the colonial period, in which only members of a community voted for its candidates.

3. Delimitation in India

Constituencies must be redrawn as population changes. Under Articles 82 and 170, after each census Parliament may provide for readjustment, carried out by a Delimitation Commission whose orders cannot be questioned in court (Article 329). The number of seats allotted to each State has been frozen on the 1971 census, by the 42nd Amendment till 2001 and by the 84th Amendment (2001) till the first census after 2026; the 2002 Commission redrew boundaries within States on the 2001 census without changing the State totals. The Lok Sabha has 543 elected seats.

4. Direct and indirect election

In direct election the voters themselves elect the representative or official: the Lok Sabha, the British House of Commons, the US House of Representatives, and since 1913 (Seventeenth Amendment) the US Senate; the French President since 1962.

• Merits: it is the most democratic method; it gives the voter political education and a sense of participation; the representative is responsible directly to the people; it is harder to corrupt a large electorate.
• Demerits: ordinary voters may be poor judges of candidates; it is costly; it encourages demagogy and emotional campaigns; frequent elections tire the voter.

In indirect election the voters elect an intermediate body, which then elects the representative. The Indian President is elected by an electoral college of the elected members of Parliament and the State Assemblies (Articles 54 and 55); members of the Rajya Sabha by the elected members of State Assemblies (Article 80(4)); the US President, in form, by the Electoral College of 538 electors; the US Senate before 1913 by State legislatures.

• Merits: a more competent, informed choice by a smaller body; less excitement and demagogy; suitable for large countries and for offices where a calm choice is wanted; cheaper.
• Demerits: less democratic; the voter loses interest; a small electoral body is easier to bribe or pressure; and in practice it becomes direct anyway, since intermediaries are pledged by party (American electors vote for their party's candidate).

5. Open and secret ballot

Under open voting the voter declares the choice publicly, by show of hands or voice, or by a recorded vote. Under secret ballot the voter marks the choice in private and no one can know it. The secret ballot was introduced in the Australian colonies of Victoria and South Australia in 1856 (hence the “Australian ballot”) and in Britain by the Ballot Act 1872.

Mill's view. In chapter 10 of Considerations on Representative Government, Mill argued for open voting. The vote is not a personal right but a public trust, to be exercised for the public good; a voter who must vote openly will feel responsible to public opinion and vote honestly, whereas secrecy encourages selfish voting.

Against Mill, the secret ballot protects the voter from intimidation by landlords, employers, priests and party agents; prevents bribery, since the briber cannot check the vote; reduces violence and victimisation after elections; and allows a free and independent choice. Every democracy now uses it. In India the secrecy of the vote is protected by section 128 of the 1951 Act; electronic voting machines, used in all constituencies since 2004, and VVPAT slips preserve it; and a “None of the Above” option has been available since 2013. Open voting survives in legislative bodies, where a member's vote ought to be known: the Rajya Sabha election is by open ballot for party members, who must show their marked ballot to their party's agent, to check cross-voting.

6. Single and plural voting

Single voting (one person, one vote) gives every voter one vote of equal value. Plural voting gives certain voters more than one vote, on the ground of property, education or residence in more than one constituency. Britain allowed it until the Representation of the People Act 1948: graduates had a second vote in university constituencies, and business owners a second vote where their premises were. Belgium used it from 1893 to 1919.

Mill's view. Mill accepted that all adults should vote but held that not all votes should be equal: the opinion of the wiser and better educated should count for more. He proposed extra votes by occupation and education (an employer more than a labourer, a professional more than both), not by property. The aim was to prevent the uneducated majority from overwhelming the minority, while excluding no one.

Against plural voting: it denies political equality, the basis of democracy; there is no agreed test of superior wisdom, and education is no guarantee of public spirit; in practice it favoured the propertied; and it breeds resentment among those with fewer votes. It has been abandoned everywhere in favour of “one person, one vote, one value”.

How this is examined

For the constituency question, define it and explain the three pairs of kinds with merits and limitations, ending with delimitation in India. For methods of election, explain direct and indirect election with Indian and American examples, open and secret ballot with Mill's argument and the reply, and single versus plural voting. The 6-mark note on direct elections is section 4, first half, with a comparison to indirect election in two lines.