Madam, - Kevin Myers (An Irishman's Diary, May 12th) and J. Kelly (May 13th) object to multi-seat constituencies. Mr Myers offers nothing better - he agrees that the British and American methods are worse - but Mr Kelly has a suggestion: single-seat constituencies with PR. I think he means STV (single transferable vote), not PR. This is the way in which we choose our President, and in that case it makes good sense - one can't have a proportional President! But in Dáil elections there would be little point in it. The well-known faults of the single-seat system would remain, with only a slight improvement.
The power to choose between several candidates belonging to the same party in multi-seat elections is a valuable extension of democracy, which few other countries possess. It may be misused, but that is not reason enough for taking it away.
Our present electoral system is not ideal, but it has served us pretty well. It has given us representation of all significant parties, stability without undue dominance by the biggest party, and a high degree of "customer satisfaction", as shown by large turn-outs at elections.
We should be slow to change it. - Yours, etc.,
G.F. DALTON, Woodlawn Park, Lower Mounttown, Dun Laoghaire,Co Dublin.