Understanding Gerrymandering: Democracy and Citizen Engagement

Gerrymandering is a method used by politicians to manipulate district maps and win elections.

Democracy relies on informed and engaged citizens, but not everyone has the ability to stay informed about every issue.

Complexity of countries and the limited knowledge of citizens make it challenging for everyone to make informed decisions and vote on every issue.

🗳️ Representative democracies elect representatives to form the government.

🔢 In Singapore, the first-past-the-post system can result in limited representation for certain parties.

🏢 GRCs ensure minority representation in Parliament but have implications on overall representation.

🗺️ The way district lines are drawn and the voters in each district can greatly impact political representation and fairness.

🔢 In an ideal representation, the number of representatives should reflect the proportion of voters for each party.

⚖️ However, the reality is that district lines may not accurately represent the population, leading to disenfranchisement and unfairness.

🗺️ Gerrymandering is the manipulation of district lines to favor a particular political party.

📊 Through packing and cracking, a minority population can be overrepresented in government.

🔴🔵 This unfair practice undermines fair representation and can lead to public frustration and alienation.

🔑 Gerrymandering has been a problem for centuries, with the first example occurring in 1812.

🗺️ Gerrymandering disenfranchises voters, but it can be prevented by approaching it as a mathematical problem.

📏 To address gerrymandering, districts should have equal population, be contiguous, and exhibit compactness.

🗺️ Gerrymandering is a significant issue in elections, characterized by compactness, contiguity, and equal population.

📊 The efficiency gap is a metric used to measure gerrymandering, with a higher gap indicating more gerrymandering.

🌐 In the context of Singapore's elections, gerrymandering has been observed in the distribution of districts.

🗺️ Redistricting in Singapore is done without the requirement of giving reasons.

👥 Democracy only works if people are engaged and hold politicians accountable.

🗳️ Gerrymandering disenfranchises voters and it's important to take action to make a difference.