http://fruitsandvotes.com The Weblog of Matthew Søberg Shugart Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:34:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en An election is likely in Australia this year. But will it be House and half the Senate (as is usual), or a double dissolution? Antony Green goes over the various calculations that the government will consider. http://fruitsandvotes.com/?p=3774 I have been meaning for weeks to ask my readers for their thoughts on the annual prorogation of parliament in Stephen Harper's Canada. The last time Harper did this, we had quite a lively discussion. http://fruitsandvotes.com/?p=3772 Gordon Brown, in The Guardian, makes the case for his bill to mandate a referendum in 2011 on whether the UK should change to the Alternative Vote. After extolling the constitutional reforms Labour has introduced since coming to power in 1997 (assemblies for Scotland and Wales, elected mayor for London, a ... http://fruitsandvotes.com/?p=3770 BBC reports that British "MPs will vote next week on holding a referendum after the general election." If the bill passes (both houses--yes, the UK parliament is bicameral) and remains in place after the new parliament is elected (under current FPTP rules) this spring, the referendum, likely in October, 2011, ... http://fruitsandvotes.com/?p=3767 Via RadioNZ, and referring to the Labour party list in New Zealand's MMP system: Labour leader Phil Goff says the party's list positions can't be requested and are decided on merit. Mr Goff was responding to a request from the president of the Ratana church to provide high list positions for ... http://fruitsandvotes.com/?p=3762 Votes are now being counted in Sri Lanka's presidential election. Various news reports have indicated that citizens from the Tamil minority are expected to side mostly with opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka against incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa. Unlike in past, war-time, elections, Tamils appear to have turned out in large numbers. This ... http://fruitsandvotes.com/?p=3753 Many readers of this blog may find the website and proposals or Repair California (Californians for a Constitutional Convention) to be of interest. http://fruitsandvotes.com/?p=3750 This week's Economist (not yet on-line) has as one of its lead articles an ardent plea for President Barack Obama to respond to the past week's special-election Senate defeat by moving to the center. Or, actually, it says the centre, but I am pretty sure these are the same place. ... http://fruitsandvotes.com/?p=3746 There will be a few changes around here. First of all, I am about to hand over the keys to the potting shed to several propagators. That is, there will be others aside from me who will be allowed to post. I will let them introduce themselves on their own terms. This ... http://fruitsandvotes.com/?p=3733 Take a look at Boris Shor's chart, posted at Fivethirtyeight by Andrew Gelman, showing the distribution of Republicans and Democrats on the left-right scale in each state's legislature. At the bottom of the chart is California. In no state are Democrats more to the left, Republicans more to the right, or ... http://fruitsandvotes.com/?p=3725