Drawbacks

Constitutional petition under Art.184(3) of the Constitution concerning election laws and prevailing electioneering and campaigning practices

"First Past the Post" (FPTP) voting system

Drawbacks

According to "First Past the Post" (FPTP) system of election, the candidate securing the highest number of votes was the winner, which meant that the winning candidate did not necessarily receive an absolute majority of all votes casted

Members of the Parliament who claimed themselves to be representatives of people, according to the "First Past the Post" (FPTP) voting system, might not command the majority of the votes registered and polled, therefore, they might not genuinely represent their electorate

Such phenomenon was perpetuated by defective electoral laws, especially S.42 of the Representation of the People Act, 1976, which was based on "First Past the Post" (FPTP) voting system

Supreme Court observed that in order to make the electoral system democratic and representative the only remedy laid in the adoption of re-polling (runoff) in those electoral constituencies where there was no clear winner who had secured at least or more than 50% of the votes polled, and that in the fresh polling between the two leading candidates anybody who secured majority votes should be declared successful.