A long way to go
Published:
July 1, 2012 at 10:00pm
And in yet more evidence that people in general don’t understand basic democracy, especially if they are Labour supporters, there’s somebody on Maltastar’s comments-board calling for voting in parliament to be by secret ballot, to avoid intimidation of MPs.
G-R-O-A-N.
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Why not?
Because when they contested the election, they stood up to be counted and hence forth they are accountable to the electorate. Simple.
Lomax, you vote for someone and they are elected to parliament as your representative. Don’t you want to know how your representative votes?
Because they are accountable to you for a start! It’s your vote, they represent you, and you should know how they are representing you.
(Deep Breath) Because otherwise we the electorate would not know what/who we were voting for.
Without a track record of how an MP voted how do you know what he stood for and whether (s)he was representing you or her/his own interest?
1. So the Parties know who is toeing the Party line and who is not.
2. So that MPs can stand to be counted.
3. So that the constituents will be satisfied that their representative who they voted for under the political banner they choose, is indeed looking after their interests.
4. So the Parties can weed out the dissidents within their own ranks.
5. So that ‘transparency’ does not become an issue.
With secret ballots, why have Party Whips?
Ditto with ‘free votes’ whether truly free or Labour ‘free’.
There may be more reasons why secret votes should not be taken in Parliament but the above come to mind at this moment.
So that each and every MP would be accountable to the voters who sent him to parliament.
For the simple reason that MPs are elected to represent us, so we have every right to know how they vote. That’s one of the basics of democracy.
There have been secret votes in the Italian parliament. In the European Parliament the election of the President of the EP is held by a secret ballot. Regarding the UK there is a lobby so that the secret vote will be introduced. http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/23411
[Daphne – Don’t be silly, David. The Italian parliament? The election of the President of the EP is a specific matter. Some points to ponder. 1. How can you have a secret ballot with a party whip? 2. How will you know how the government voted and how the Opposition voted? 3. How will electors know how their MP voted? The whole point of parliamentary business is that it is transparent.]
“In the European Parliament the election of the President of the EP is held by a secret ballot”.
So is the election of our Members of Parliament. Thallatx il-hass mal-bass.
why not ?
Shame on the Labour party for colluding with irresponsible government MPs to axe political opponents. What a miserable mentality.
Secret ballot in parliament would conceal the disloyalty of members who vote against what they promised to those who voted for them.
Kieku l-parlament ikollu vot sigriet kieku il-PL ilu jiehu daqqiet go rasu hafna aktar milli ha il-PN staqsu lil Adrian Vassallo u ohrajn li jibzaw ghax jigu mhedda u dawn lanqas meta inataw il-free vot ukoll gew mhedda biex jivutaw kif ried Joseph.
At one time in the past, MLP members in parliament had a huge monetary fine if they vote or go against the whip’s orders. Does this still exist?
No, I believe that the ‘fines’ were dropped after Joseph became leader.
Instead, they were replaced with the twisting of arms, intimidation and other ‘consequences’ known only to Labour’s inner circle.
Just ask Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca and Adrian Vassallo, for starters.