Enderronian electoral reform referendum, 2020

A federal referendum was held on Saturday 17 October 2020 in Enderron on whether the country should change its voting system from a full preferential voting system with single-member constituencies to a mixed-member proportional (MMP) system.

The referendum was carried by a margin of 54.2 percent to 45.8 percent. The new electoral system will be implemented starting from the 2022 federal election.

Background
National elections in Enderron were first held in 1818 using the first-past-the-post (FPTP) plurality voting system with single-member electorates. This basic system continued until Enderron gained independence in 1946. The 1946 federal election was the first to use instant-runoff (full preferential) voting. Single-member electorates were retained. This electoral reform came about largely due to the advocacy of the minor New Democratic Party, which had won 5 to 10 percent of the popular vote in every election since its founding in 1920, but never held more than five seats in the Legislative Assembly. The 1945 general election resulted in a hung parliament with the NDP holding the balance of power. The party agreed to support the incumbent United Party government on the condition of instituting a preferential voting system.

Hence, from 1946 onwards, Enderronian elections were conducted using instant-runoff voting. While the first few post-independence elections returned relatively proportional results, the Enderronian political landscape quickly solidified into a two-party system; the United and Social Democratic parties came to dominate Enderronian politics from the 1960s onwards, with only a small number of independent and minor party candidates elected. While politically stable, the system created increasingly disproportional election results. While the preferential voting system was arguably more democratic than FPTP, it does not guarantee proportionality. For example, in the 1970 election, the Social Democrats won 55.5 percent of the vote but more than three-quarters of the seats in parliament, while the New Democratic Party garnered 6 percent of the vote but won zero seats. Over the decades, the combined vote share of the Social Democrats and their conservative rivals has declined from over 85 percent in the 1970s to less than 75 percent in the 2010s, yet the major parties still retained more than 90 percent of the seats in every election from 1946 to 2018 (except 1990). No minor party ever won more than 10 percent of the seats under the preferential voting system.

The modern electoral reform debate began in earnest in the late 1990s following a string of excessively disproportional election results. Ambivalence by the major parties caused the issue to languish for several years, but in the meantime, an influential lobby group was formed called Fair Vote Enderron. Several minor parties, most notably the Enderronian Greens and Enderron Democrats, campaigned strongly in favour of electoral reform during elections in the 2000s.

Following the 2014 federal election, which resulted in a hung parliament, the Enderronian Greens provided confidence and supply to the Social Democrats in exchange for the commissioning of a Royal Commission into the Electoral System. Through the mid-2010s, support of electoral reform increased as the issue entered public consciousness. The royal commission, which was formed in 2015 and reported in 2016, ultimately recommended a change to a mixed-member proportional system. Bolstered by the result, both the Social Democrats and Liberals entered the 2018 election promising to hold a referendum on electoral reform before the next election.

The Social Democratic government was re-elected and pushed ahead with its campaign promise, setting in motion for a referendum by the end of 2020. Although originally planned for April 2020, the referendum was delayed to October 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Proposed legislation
TBA

Party positions
Each of the political parties represented in parliament, as well as several others outside parliament, held formalised positions on the proposed electoral reform.

"Yes" campaign
The campaign for supporting voting in favour of the proposed MMP system received support from three minor parties represented in parliament (the Greens, Enderron Democrats and the Pirate Party), several outside of parliament, and prominent lobby groups including Fair Vote Enderron.

"No" campaign
The campaign for supporting voting against the proposed MMP system received support from the Liberal and National parties. The Liberal Party did not support the referendum due to its wording; it was in favour of a two-stage referendum plan, with the first referendum asking voters if they wanted a change in the electoral system, and the second asking voters for what type of system they wanted instead.

Neutral
The Social Democrats did not hold an official position either way in the referendum, allowing its MPs and members to campaign individually.