Electoral system for national legislature

Electoral System Design: The New International IDEA Handbook, 2005

"The May 2008 elections were held under a new electoral system whereby 25 election districts used in previous elections were amalgamated into five larger districts, with each voter entitled to cast four votes. It was thought that the new system would make it easier for women to be elected, to make ‘vote buying’ harder and to facilitate co-ordinated election strategies between like-minded candidates. However, the new system had some unanticipated ‘side effects’ e.g. because each voter has four votes some political blocs ‘traded’ votes with each other, a practice that is facilitated by the existence of close social networks (families, clans and tribes). This allows candidates to have a good idea of their core support, enabling them to ‘trade’ one or two votes of the four available to voters with other candidates in exchange for the votes from the other candidate’s core support." Source: Democract Report International