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This article was published 21/8/2015 (1858 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari says if she becomes the next premier she’d move the province to a proportional representation electoral system of electing MLAs.

How such a system would actually look would only be applied after Liberal government consults more fully with Manitobans, she said, but it would mean this April’s election would be the last in which the only way to vote is by marking an X on a ballot next to the name of your chosen candidate. That current system, simple plurality or the "first-past-the-post" system, has been in use to elect MLAs since 1958.

"There needs to be a change," she said today outside the Manitoba Legislative Building. "The current system does not work"

Bokhari’s pledge is one federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has already made in the lead-up to the Oct. 19 federal election.

The federal NDP have advocated proportional representation as way to bring more fairness to political representation.

Proportional representation typically involves electing multiple representatives for each constituency. Seats in the legislature would be awarded to each party on the basis of its share of the popular vote.

"As I go around and I speak to Manitobans, it’s very clear that they do not feel that their vote matters," Bokhari said. "If Manitobans are saying that they feel that their votes don’t matter, and they’re voting either against someone and that they’re not voting for something, then we have a problem."

Bokhari could not say exactly how many Manitobans she had consulted on electoral reform to date, but said when it comes up in conversation younger Manitobans tell here that they feel excluded from the process.

This is the third policy announcement by Bokhari in the past few weeks. She has said if elected premier a Liberal government would review how liquor is sold in other provinces and make the necessary changes to improve pricing in Manitoba. More recently, she has said she would remove the annual quota on hip and knee replacements.

She is running in Fort Rouge.

History of electoral reform in Manitoba

1870: Voting occurs at public constituency meetings where each voter publicly declares their preference. The electoral officer records the votes, and the simple plurality (or 'first-past-the-post') system is used to elect members for the 24 seats in the Legislative Assembly.

1914: A new system of representation is introduced: Winnipeg is divided into three constituencies, each represented by two members. Voters in each constituency are issued two ballots, one for each seat. No candidate can be listed on both ballots. So, although Winnipeg voters, in effect, vote twice, the ballots are counted and the candidates declared elected as if there were two separate constituencies. The rural constituencies, meanwhile, retain the simple first-past-the-post system.

1920: A "proportional representation" system of voting is introduced in Winnipeg. The city is consolidated into a single constituency electing 10 members. Voters indicate their preferences by numbering the candidates' names on the ballot paper 1,2,3 etc. A complex method of counting these ballot papers is provided by amendments to The Elections Act.

1927: The rural constituencies abandon the simple plurality system in favour of an "alternative" or "referential" balloting system which is used until 1958. In constituencies where more than two candidates are nominated, voters indicate their preferences by marking the ballot 1,2,3 etc.

The practice of members of the Assembly who had been chosen to enter the Cabinet (Executive Council) resigning their seats to face a by-election is abolished.6

The practice of "deferring" elections is becoming increasingly common, especially in northern constituencies where transportation and communication were difficult. The elections in these constituencies are held after the General Election when results from the remainder of the province were already known. Deferred elections are last held in 1966.

1949: The single, 10-member constituency of Winnipeg is replaced by three constituencies, each represented by four members. In addition, the constituency of St. Boniface is given two members. The preferential balloting system is retained for these multi-member seats.

1958: Winnipeg is divided into 20 single-member constituencies. The system of referential or alternative voting is abandoned in favour of the first-past-the-post plurality system in all constituencies, rural and urban.

2006: The Elections Act is re-written in plain language, resulting in significant changes in terminology.

2008: Set election date established, with the first election set to take place on Oct. 4, 2011 and subsequent elections to take place on the first Tuesday of October every four years.

— Elections Manitoba