The basic principle guiding Proportional Representation (PR) is that all voters deserve representation and that political parties should be represented in legislatures in proportion to their strength in the electorate.

This means that if a party receives 35 percent of the vote, it will get 35 per cent of the seats, not 70 percent as is normally the case with FPTP. It thus ensures that a government cannot be formed if it does not enjoy the support of majority of voters. In other words, voters in the majority will earn a majority of seats, while voters in the minority also will earn their fair share of representation.

The advantages of a PR systemare manifold. Essentially, they address all of the problems plaguing the current 'pure' FPTP system. However, it does not follow that we should totally abandon the use of the FPTP system. For all of its faults, the FPTP system at least has the advantage of building a rapport between the voters and their representative in a clearly defined, relatively small territory.

What we propose, therefore, is a mixed compensatory system combining the 'best of both worlds', by combining the best elements of both the PR and FTPT. The workings of the mixed compensatory PR system are quite complicated, and are most easily understood by viewing a detailed illustrative example. Put simply, under a mixed compensatory PR system:

• 50% of the seats in the Lok Sabha would be elected via constituency-election, just like under FPTP. For convenience, this 50% of seats would be labeled as the 'Constituency List'.
• The remaining 50% of seats in the Lok Sabha would be elected via PR. These seats would be allocated according to the respective shares of the State vote received by each party. For convenience, this 50% of seats would be labeled as the 'Parties List'.
• Each voter would cast two votes. The first vote would be for their local member of the Lok Sabha. This vote would relate to the Constituency List. The second vote would be for a preferred party. This second vote would relate to the Parties List.
• The ultimate number of seats won by each party will be a combination of seats drawn from the Constituency List and Parties List. This figure will be calculated using several adjustments to ensure fairness in distribution of seats.

Again, it must be stressed that this is a simplified summary of the operation of the mixed compensatory PR system - it is advisable to view a more detailed illustrative example.