Second Ballot System.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4344, 3 December 1908, Page 3

Second Ballot System.

The working of the second ballot system has in no way convinced us that it has in itself any single merit to commend its introduction into the electoral system of this country; and we cannot help feeling that we have on this occasion the warm snpport of* Sir Joseph Ward. When he introduced tlid'Act he expected that it would serve him well by winning for the Government practically every contest in which „there was a %piit vote. While professing an anxiety only for majority representation, he hoped that his precious Act would sweep into his pocket every doubtful seat. But the Act has not only failed to achieve the intended " purpose, but it has actually resulted in a positive loss to the Government. In fifteen of the 22 seats contested recently a Ministerial candidate headed the poll at the first ballot. On the second ballot the Ministerialists won 11 seats. The Government has simply lost four seats owing to the passage of the Act. Never, surely, did political trickery more humourously overreach itself! Sneaked into law at the eleventh hour to rig the elections in the Government’s favour, the new system has not only failed dismally in its primary purpose, hut has actually intensified the condition of things—tfie representation of Reform opinion—which it was designed to destroy !—“ Dominion.’