Over the holidays, the Cook islands became embroiled in a constitutional crisis, with Prime Minister Jim Marurai losing the confidence of parliament and refusing to reconvene the House to avoid a confidence vote. In an effort to boost his flagging fortunes and win the almost-inevitable snap election, he has suddenly got very keen on constitutional reform.
Currently the Cooks operate under a fairly standard Westminster system, with the Prime Minister and Cabinet being appointed from the 24-member Parliament. Due to the geography of the islands and the desire to represent communities of interest, electorates were never of equal size, and subsequent population shifts have distorted them even further. As a result, the 75 eligible voters of Rakahanga have an equal voice with the 750 eligible voters of Avatiu-Ruatonga-Palmerston, while the island of Mangaia, with 400 eligible voters, enjoys 3 Parliamentary seats. In general, this has meant that small islands are over-represented, while the main island of Rarotonga (where 70% of the population lives) is underrepresented.
The proposals would change this, eliminating 5 seats from smaller islands and replacing them with 5 national seats, similar to those used in Niue. The aim of this is to give MPs "a more national focus", but the effective result would be to give Rarotonga a more significant voice. Unfortunately, as they still use FPP, it will also likely result in delivering these five seats as a block to the victorious party on a small swing of the vote - hardly a democratic outcome.
A second proposal is for direct election of the Prime Minister, with the highest-polling candidate in a national seat automatically gaining the top job. This is being pushed as increasing stability, but it seems set to do the opposite - there's a real risk of a PM being elected who does not command the confidence of the House, and who is thus unable to enact any legislative program or even appropriate funds (rather like the current one, in fact). Combined with this is a proposal to allow non-MPs to be appointed to Cabinet - a move which results in Ministers with no democratic accountability at all. Together, this would be a significant step away from the Westminster system and towards a US-style presidential system.
Any changes would have to be approved either by two-thirds of MPs, or a referendum. With the Prime Minister afraid to call Parliament for fear of being voted out of office, the former looks unlikely. Which means the Cooks may see a constitutional referendum as well as an election this year.
