WHOEVER wins the coming election should seriously think of amending our Constitution. It will require a lot of political capital, but there is an urgent need to change our Charter in the following ways for better governance, more equality and a realistic adjustment toward improvement in our current anomalous situation.
There should be run-off elections with our penchant to have multiple self-nominated presidential candidates that give whoever wins a slim incremental increase over also-rans which hardly translates to political capital. In fact, it diminishes it and leaves the electorate dissatisfied and the victor with an eked-out win reaping a lot of future obstruction. Multiple candidates means they are under delusions that will eventually translate to election protests and other polarizing moves as well as paralyzing governance and policymaking. A run-off election should settle that. Our political parties are too numerous without the necessary numbers of constituents and well-crafted platforms. Our self-nominated, ambitious even if inexperienced candidates are just too many. It is time to solve this awkward and unworkable situation with run-off elections where the first two who get the most votes are made to run against each other in a separate election. Then a majority is garnered and the winner is clearly that, with the political capital to use. And political parties should be reviewed as to how they are recognized and how they operate. Too many of them with no particular direction or platform have brought chaos.
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