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VICTORIA — British Columbians will have three options to change how they elect provincial politicians in a November referendum, including two voting systems that have never been used and a third that was rejected by the province’s citizens’ assemblies.

Premier John Horgan’s government unveiled the options and rules for the Nov. 30 referendum on Wednesday, setting the stage for months of debate between advocates and opponents of changing our current first past the post system that elects the candidate with the most votes in 87 B.C. ridings.

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Horgan described B.C.’s current system as “rigged on behalf of the other side” in reference to the many elections previously won by the B.C. Liberals. “For years and years and years it has provided absolute power to the people who get the minority of the votes,” he said.

The NDP is proposing three alternatives: Dual Member Proportional, which would involve large two-MLA districts where one politician is elected based on the most votes and the other by their party’s provincewide performance; Mixed Member Proportional (MMP), where 60 per cent of the province’s MLAs would be elected by most votes and 40 per cent by lists set by political parties; and Rural-Urban Proportional Representation, a mash-up between MMP for rural ridings and the Single Transferable Vote system twice rejected in previous B.C. referendums for urban ridings.