Calls for the introduction of a new electoral system in Kenya alongside the one in use at present could see the number of parliamentary seats rise to 300 from the present 210.

Although the constitution does not allow for a review of parliamentary constituency boundaries until after 2006, (10 years after the last review, which was carried out in 1996), numerous calls and presentations made to the Kenya Constituency Boundary Review Commission point to the likelihood of the proportional representation electoral system being introduced in Kenya alongside the current first-past-the-post system.

This is one of the key proposals made by the ruling party Kanu to the review commission early this year.

Early last month, a number of Kanu MPs proposed the introduction of an additional 90 parliamentary seats, a move which, if passed by parliament, would raise the number of seats to 300.

Party insiders said the proposals are intended to introduce a new, " more just" electoral system.

In May, a meeting of major stakeholders in the electoral process, including the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), the National Alliance for Change (which groups three of Kenya's major opposition parties) and the Kenya Peoples' Coalition as well as representatives from civil society, non-governmental organisations and religious organisations, agreed on a package of reforms for free and fair elections.

Among the key proposals was that the best way to guarantee participation in future elections was the introduction of a "mixed-member proportional system."

This system attempts to combine the positive attributes of both the majoritarian systems (which Kenya presently uses) and the proportional representation (PR) electoral system.

A proportion of representatives is elected on majoritarian terms, while PR lists determine the remainder. The PR seats, its proponents say, compensate for the disproportion caused by the existing arbitrary constituency boundaries.

In 1997, the biggest constituency, Embakasi had 114,354 registered voters, while the smallest, Ijara, had 7,501.

Supporters of the PR electoral system say it makes for less apathy and that countries that use it have had consistently higher voter turnout than those where elections are held using a majoritarian electoral system.

They say the PR system allows for more diverse representation, since even the smaller parties get seats.

In a 1995 survey published in the Almanac of European Politics, Belgium, which has a PR system, had the highest voter turnout of 93 per cent, while the highest turnout by a country with a majoritarian system was the United Kingdom's 76 per cent.

Of the 20 countries surveyed, only the UK, France and the United States used majoritarian systems.

Since independence, Kenya has been using the constituency-based, first-past-the-post system to elect MPs.

Under this system, a candidate who garners the most votes wins the election.

Critics say the current system does not address proportionality in representation and that votes cast for losers in the majoritarian elections are wasted.

During the last general election, for instance, the ruling party Kanu had 2,243,463 (39 per cent), while the combined opposition had 3,563,048 (61 per cent) of the total valid votes cast.

In purely proportional terms, the critics contend, Kanu would have had 39 per cent of the 210 seats (81 seats), while the combined opposition would have had 61 per cent (129 seats).

The present system, however, enabled Kanu to win 107 seats, while the combined opposition won 103.

During the 1966 "little general election" Kanu, which was in power, got 29 (76 per cent) of the 38 house of representatives and senate seats, while the Kenya Peoples' Union (KPU) had nine seats (24 per cent), although KPU had more votes.

In the 1992 general election, Kanu had 98 seats (52 per cent), while the combined opposition had 90 (48 per cent) of the 188 seats.

Yet Kanu obtained only 35 per cent of the popular votes vis-a-vis the 65 per cent of the combined opposition. 

In their proposal calling for the introduction of a mixed-member proportional system, the stakeholders meeting sought an expansion to accommodate an additional 105 electoral seats, 15 more than those proposed by Kanu.

They proposed that the additional seats be apportioned to the parliamentary political parties according to the number of votes garnered in parliamentary elections.

This, they said, would make it possible for parties to bring to parliament representatives of women and other minority groups who are unable to compete effectively in constituency elections.

In addition to their constituency parliamentary candidates, political parties would each have a list (Parties List) of names of individuals whom they would elect to parliament in this manner.

The list would be used during the campaigns and would be lodged with the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) before the elections. 

List PR is the most common of the various systems of proportional representation. Parties get seats depending on the proportion of votes they win and the winning candidates are taken from the list in order of the positions they occupy. So if a party puts forward a list 20 names and gets six sits on the basis of the votes garnered, the first names go through.

The proposed system, if adopted, would favour Kenyan women who have always been a minority in parliament. Since 1963, the proportion of women in parliament has never exceeded 4.1 per cent, a figure that was only attained during the current parliament when five women were elected and four nominated to parliament.

Early this year, the ECK slashed the number of civic wards from 2,954 to 2,073 following concerns raised about the high number of civic wards and their unsustainability because of lack of guaranteed revenue and productivity.

The ECK's review of civic wards was the first of its kind since the commission came into existence. This was a new mandate bestowed on the commission through the Inter-Parties Parliamentary Group reforms and was enacted in the Local Government Act, giving the ECK powers to divide any municipality, county, township or county division into electoral areas.

The mandate includes the creation of electoral areas, delimitation of their boundaries, review of their numbers and their naming. Prior to 1997, the creation of civic wards was done by the Ministry of Local Authorities while the ECK administered the electoral process.

The proponents of the PR system say a similar approach could be adopted in parliament to help pave the way for the introduction of PR seats in parliament. PR systems can take any number of forms. The most common are list PR, single-transferable-vote and mixed-member PR.

In the single-transferable-vote PR electoral system, the voters have one vote, but rank the candidates in order of preference.

A quota is established based on the total number of votes. The candidates with lower preferences are eliminated and their preferences distributed. The recipient of the most preferences after the redistribution becomes the winner.