A Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mr David Adenze Kanga, has attributed the tension and acrimony associated with the country's democratic dispensation to the current political system of 'winner takes all'. He has therefore suggested that a blend of the winner takes all and the proportional representation system could be the way out to douse the flames of tension that characterised elections in the country. He said the blend could limit the enormous powers linked with the winner takes all and the creeping harmful effect of ethnocentrism that had reared their ugly heads in the voting pattern. Mr Kanga was speaking to the Daily Graphic in reaction to grave concerns expressed by participants at a workshop on the dangers that the winner takes all system that the country was presently using, as well as the dangers that ethnocentrism in politics bring. The workshop was organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) for leaders of political parties, religious groups, civil society organisations, the media and development partners on the theme, 'The survival of multi-party democracy and politics of accommodation and tolerance". Asked whether the time had come for the country to undertake the blend, Mr Kanga explained that that was a political question that he was not in the position to answer. He however, added that his proposal was in line with the recommendations made by the drafters of the 1992 Constitution that the EC should from time to time educate Ghanaians on other electoral systems, especially proportional presentation for possible adoption anytime it was found suitable. Mr Kanga added that the EC had been educating political parties and Members of Parliament since 1994 with the hope that they would agree to it. He said unfortunately, the parties and MPs have been arguing that the proportional representation was either complicated or Ghanaians were not ready to change from the 'first past the post' system. He said a look at the electoral system and their pros and cons indicated that one of the problems of 'first past the post' was that it tended to "bring about very strong governments through the winner takes all system". Mr Kanga explained that another danger with first past the post was that one day the country would experience a situation where a party would end up with majority seats in parliament but without the majority vote in the presidential election. Regarding the biometric system of registration and voting, Mr Kanga said the country should tread cautiously concerning voting, in order not to throw off the transparency tenets in the present voting system. He explained that with the electronic voting, the electorate would be given receipts from the machine indicating that they had voted and after the process the machine would indicate how many votes each candidate received. With this process against the backdrop of the fact that the Ghanaian electorate was accustomed to the counting of ballots in their presence, the ordinary voter would not appreciate how the machine arrived at the final figures for each candidate. Source: Daily Graphic