Australia is federalized in the form of a national structure, with the highest level being the federal goverment, and then the state, goverment, and below the state, the local goverment.. As a result, Australia's elections are mainly divided into three levels, one is federal elections, the production of federal deputies and senators; the second is the state council elections; and the third is the substate goverment elections. The scope of application of these three kinds of elections is different, the rules are different, the organizations are different, each has its own characteristics. Due to the special status of federal elections, this paper mainly discusses the situation of federal elections.
As a British colony, the Commonwealth of Australia was basically modelled on the British parliamentary system. According to the Constitution, the highest legislature of the Federation is the Federal Parliament. The Federal Parliament of Australia is composed of the Queen (representative of the Federal Governor), the Senate and the House of Representatives. At the same time, in terms of organizational structure, the Federal Parliament of Australia adopts a bicameral system generally following the pattern of the United States Congress.
The Federal Parliament has a wide range of functions and powers, including, inter alia:
In order to understand the election of both houses of Congress, we must first understand the administrative divisions of Australia. Administratively, the Commonwealth of Australia consists of six states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania), two territories (Capital Territory and Northern Territory).
The composition of the Senate is state-based. Article 1 of the Federal Constitution provides that the Senate shall consist of senators directly elected by the peoples of the states. Each state and territory has a separate constituency, each state constituency, regardless of population, has 12 senators; each territory has two. As a result, there are 76 federal senators across the country. State-elected senators serve six-year terms and half every three years; four senators from both territories serve three-year terms. The election of senators is subject to a system of proportional representation. Each constituency distributes seats among the parties participating in the election, in proportion to the number of votes obtained by the list of candidates for each political party.
The composition of the House of Representatives is based on population. Article 24 of the Federal Constitution stipulates that the Federal House of Representatives shall be composed of directly elected deputies and shall have as many as twice as many members as possible than senators. In the 1998 federal election, the country was divided into 148 constituencies, each of which had a population of about 80,000, so that more populous states would have more deputies. At present, there are 148 deputies in the country for a three-year term. The election of deputies is based on a single-majority priority, in which only one representative can be elected in each constituency and elected by an absolute majority.
Elections for senators and deputies are governed by the following rules:
These are the basics of Australia's federal electoral system. These static systems need to operate in order to achieve the objectives of the elections. This critical organization was carried out by the Australian Election Commission (Australian Electoral Commission, or AEC). AEC is an independent electoral body that plays a vital role in federal elections and plays an irreplaceable role.
Prior to 1984, federal elections were organized by the non-independent Australian Electoral Office. On 21 February 1984, the Federal Electoral Act was amended to create an independent AEC,. Main functions of AEC in charge of federal elections and referendums: first, obtaining and updating voter registration information; The second is to organize federal elections and referendums, and to organize elections in the industrial and commercial circles upon invitation; third, to organize election education to strengthen public understanding of elections and parliaments; fourth, to provide information and advice to Parliament and the goverment,goverment department on electoral matters; Five is electoral research; sixth is to help redraw electoral districts; seventh is to help organize foreign elections and national referendums with permission.
AEC is based on geography. Headquartered in Canberra, capital; offices in each state and Northern Territory; AEC follows the Federal elections Act of 1918, the Delegates Act of 1983 and the referendum Act of 1984 to exercise their powers and organize the elections.
Under the organization of the AEC, the democratic, standardized federal election system has basically achieved the goal of openness, fairness and transparency through the participation of Australian voters. According to statistics, in the 1998 federal election, the election participation rate reached 96%, all sectors of the community, such as voters, political parties, the media and so on, gave high praise to the work of the AEC. Through interviews and on-the-ground participation, the main features of Australia's electoral system and mode of operation are quite unique, summarized in the following four main points:
First, compulsory registration and voting. Australia is one of the few countries in the world to enforce compulsory registration and voting. This rule contains the idea that to citizens, election is not only a right, but also an obligation. Some countries say little about Australia's compulsory registration and voting, arguing that it does harm to voters' personal freedom. But Australians argue that such rules do more good than harm to Australia. Because of Australia's vast land, scattered living, lazy people, without some mandatory requirements, the election participation rate would be very low, the elected people will not be representative, the election has no meaning. According to statistics, before the implementation of the mandatory vote, the highest participation rate was 78%; after the implementation of the compulsory vote, the participation rate gradually stabilized at 95% and 96%. Moreover, it is only compulsory for voters to come to polling stations to collect, fill and vote ballots. It is not to force voters to change their attitude towards candidates. After entering the secret counting room, it is free for a voter to choose how he or she chooses to be entirely up to him. Secret, therefore, it cannot be said that compulsory voting infringes on the freedom of voters. In addition, the implementation of compulsory voting will help candidates to focus their publicity on introducing their programmes to voters, without spending too much time and money on mobilizing voters to participate in the voting, and in favour of voters in accordance with the candidate's policies. Make your own choices.
Second, priority voting and transferable counting. Anyone who doesn't know Australia's electoral system feels complicated and troublesome when it comes to the rules, and then it makes sense.
Take, for example, the election of one federal representative from six candidates:
Step 1: after the voter receives the ballot, fill the space in front of the candidate's name to fill the order number and cast the vote.
Voters will receive such a vote:
Federal House of Representatives votes New South Wales Bannon constituency
In the order you choose, Enter one to six numbers in the space-Howard (Liberal Party)-Douglas-Dawson (independent candidate)-Rolas (Natural Law Party)-Reddy (Democratic Party of Australia)-Roque (Australian Labour Party) remember. In order for your vote to be valid, you must fill in each space with the number Australian Election Commission AEC step 2: the first round of counting.
At the polling station, all valid ballots were sorted out to figure out how many ballots each candidate got marked "1". If a candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, he is elected.
Step 3: second round of counting
If no one is more than half, then begin to transfer the counting. Among the candidates, those with the least number of "1" votes were eliminated. His vote, according to the number of "2", was transferred to the other candidates. The program was repeated until a candidate was elected by an absolute majority.
For example: in a constituency, there are three candidates, Tang monk, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and voters choose one of them to hold a certain position. After the vote, 60000 valid votes were obtained. If elected, a majority of the votes, that is, 30001 votes, will be required.
According to the first round of votes counting, 15000 voters liked Tang monk's election most, ranking him first; 23000 people ranked Sun Wukong first; and 22000 people ranked Zhu Bajie first. As there were no more than half of the people, they began to transfer the counting. The Tang monk, who got the least number one, was ruled out and his vote was allocated to other candidates. Of the 15000 votes that ranked Tang Monk No. 1, 6300 ranked Sun Wukong in the second place and 8700 ranked Zhu Bajie in the 2nd. In this way, by adding up the first and second ballots obtained by Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie, Sun Wukong won 23000 (1) + 6300 (the second of the Tang Monk votes) = 29300; Zhu Bajie got 22000 (1) + 8700 (the second of the Tang Monk votes) = 30700. Because Zhu Bajie got more than half of the votes, he won the election in this constituency. Although Sun Wukong was chosen as the first choice by the largest number of voters, 1000 more than Zhu Bajie, but after a round of transfer counting, Zhu Bajie got more votes than Sun Wukong, and more than half, so he was elected and Sun Wukong lost the election.
Australians believe this approach can make everyone's choice, every vote important, and the result of the election better reflects the will of the majority.
Third, an independent electoral organization.
After a hundred years of development, Australia's electoral system has been very stable, but there are still some changes. But in any case, AEC officials believe that maintaining the independence of the electoral organization will only strengthen, not change.
The AEC does not belong to any political party and is not a subordinate body of the goverment; the funds it needs are allocated by Parliament and have adequate financial guarantees; what to do, what to do is up to its own decision, without the consent of Parliament. Moreover, the AEC has sufficient authority and authority to deal with election-related matters. For example, if AEC believes that a political party has problems with the declaration of party property, that it is not open and transparent, that the report is not reported, that he can use various means to investigate, and that he can even require an aircraft that is flying. The shipping ship stopped working and was under investigation until the facts were found out.
The independence and authority of AEC enable it to be neutral, efficient and specialized in the organization of elections, so that elections can be unified and standardized. Thanks to AEC's outstanding performance in organizing elections, many national non-parliamentary elections in Australia, such as national trade unions and chamber of commerce elections, often request AEC to organize; AEC has also helped organize elections in other countries.
Fourth, perfect election education. When looking at Australia's electoral system, the delegation felt the most is its perfect and well-developed electoral education. At the Sydney office in AEC, Canberra headquarters visited an open, informative information centre. In the capital, Canberra, the delegation also visited the Canberra Electoral Education Centre and participated in a one-and-a-half-hour training course with more than 20 students. AEC has set up four such specialized educational institutions throughout the country. Popularize election knowledge to citizens, especially young people.
In general, electoral education in Australia has the following characteristics:
The electoral system must be adapted to national conditions. Electoral system is the cornerstone of modern democratic politics, it must adapt to a country's national conditions, state system, and political system. Therefore, the electoral system of all countries in the world not only has the principle of common adherence, but also should be diversified. Australians have not changed it because of the accusation of certain countries for compulsory registration and voting. According to opinion polls, the Australian people are welcome and positive about compulsory registration and voting, and think it is good for Australia. There are certain technical methods, Australia also maintains its own characteristics. AEC, for example, has insisted on the use of paper ballots, arguing that it is more humane than machine ballots and makes voters more aware of their responsibilities. It can be said that each country should design and implement the electoral system according to its own national conditions. Otherwise, it is possible to go astray.
The priority order and the transferable vote count should be used for reference. In the election of the village committee of our country, the rule of absolute majority election is applied. In practice, some village often have to repeat that election because there is no candidate to vote in favour of a majority. It is understood that the very few villages have been selected for thousands of times or even more than a few times and have not been successful, which greatly raised the cost of the election, raised the dissatisfaction of the voters and affected the smooth progress of the elections. If a priority order vote and a transferable vote count are applied, the issue can be addressed to ensure that the elections are successful at a time. Such an attempt could be made after training of voters, in particular the electoral staff, in the required villages. If the test is successful, we have provided a new way to solve the problem of repeated elections. It is the authority and the neutral electoral organization to ensure the smooth progress of the elections. As an independent body responsible for organizing the federal elections, the AEC has great power and high authority, and its law enforcement capacity is strong. Under the AEC, the contents of the electoral education can be arranged in a unified way, unified ballot papers and a unified electoral process can be made to ensure that the whole election is planned and organized in an orderly and methodical manner, which not only saves the cost, but also avoids the interference of various forces on the election. It can be said that an organization such as AEC has basically led to all the organization and management affairs of the Australian Federal elections, so as to ensure the unity of command and operation. How to draw on this experience in order to improve the quality of the election of the people's congress of our country, the election of the village committee and the election of the neighborhood committee, it is worth to make an in-depth study and study.
We must attach great importance to election education. Australians pride themselves on their electoral system, calling it a clean election, less commercial, less illegal, and the High Court, which deals with electoral proceedings and violations, rarely receives such cases. Officials in charge of the election believe that the lack of illegal acts is not because of the number of police and prisons, but because of the establishment of an effective system to prevent the occurrence of illegal acts. To be able to do this, an important experience is to attach importance to election publicity. Through the extensive and in-depth election education, the Australian citizens' understanding of the election and their own sense of responsibility have been enhanced. Everyone is conscious of abiding by the law and becoming an obligatory supervisor, which lays a solid social foundation for the election to be conducted in accordance with the law. In the process of promoting democracy at the grass-roots level in rural areas, one of the major problems facing our country is that there are many illegal acts by voters, candidates and election organizations, which seriously interfere with the normal order of elections and even affect the social stability. In order to solve this problem, in addition to perfecting relevant laws, regulations, and strengthening enforcement investigation and punishment, a more basic and long-term solution is to carry out election education and improve the quality of voters. In the aspect of strengthening the election education of the village committee, it is urgent to strengthen the propaganda, education and training of the election through the integration of all kinds of resources, which should become an important exploration and solution of the election work of the village committee in the future.