Every time there is a by-election, I hear people saying the same thing: “How much is this going to cost?”. I usually respond: “democracy has a price, and that price is less onerous than a “free” dictatorship”. But that being said, is there a way to mitigate the costs related to an election?

Right now, in BC (and everywhere in Canada) if an elected official resigns (a fairly common event), is expelled from the legislature (a very rare event) or dies (an event that everyone has to go through in life), we have to hold a by-election to replace the departing (or departed) politician. Under our current system, there is no other way of dealing with this issue.

Under BC-STV, it could be a different story. As you may know, under BC-STV, electors rank candidates according to their preferences. Under that system, votes are transferred to your second, third, fourth, etc. choices depending of various situations; see http://stv.ca/how-does-stv-work#transfer for more details regarding this process.

The same principle could be applied if, for example, an MLA resigns during his/her mandate. Instead of holding a by-election, we can simply look back at the results of the previous general election. From those results, we simply transfer the choice made by voters who elected the departing politician. The result is that we get a new elected officials who has, roughly, the same values and ideas has the one who just quit. In other words, a new MLA from the same party.

This is actually what is being done in Australia and Malta. And not only does it save a by-election, but the voters’ will gets very well transferred under this principle and the new politician is almost always of the same party of the departing politician. Therefore, balance between parties remains. In fact, since 1985, in Tasmania, if the “new” guy is not from the same party as the “old” one, a by-election must be organized. And this has yet to happen.

Under the current FPTP system, by-elections must be held to replace politicians. Under BC-STV, by-elections can be avoided, without compromising the people’s will.

You can read more about this issue in here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issues_affecting_the_Single_Transferable_Vote#Vacancies

Frédéric Van Caenegem