33 is the absolute majority

Mar 27, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Some persons, including some highly educated individuals, are becoming utterly confused over this idea of a majority – simple, absolute, special or super. Some are confusing themselves by arguing that an absolute majority is half plus one.
Half plus one is just one of the two general formulae which are used to calculate an absolute majority, and it applies only where there is an even number of the voting population.
But before one gets to the formula, the public should be clear in their minds as to what is a majority. A majority simply means one more than all of its rivals.
It is like in boxing, where two judges vote in favour of one boxer and the other judge votes for the second boxer. In the past, this used to be called a split decision. Today, it is referred to as a majority decision, because there were two in favour and one against.
Or it is like in the court, where two judges agree with a point of law and the other disagrees. In that case, on that point, there is a majority in favour of the point.
In order to determine a majority to pass a decision in a 65-seat National Assembly, what is looked for is the minimum or the least majority. This is the threshold for achieving a majority. Once this threshold is reached, you have what is termed the minimum majority needed.
In a 65-seat parliament, the least majority you can have is 33-32. You cannot have lower than that. But you can have a higher majority. You can have 34-31 or 35-30 right through to 65-0.
So in order for a motion or a Bill to be passed, it must receive at least one more vote than its rivals. This is the definition of a majority – one more than its rivals. It is the definition which was used in the Killman case, which was one of the cases cited by those who challenged the validity of the no-confidence motion on the ground that the majority needed to pass the motion was 34 and not 33.
Now the concept of what is ‘rivals’ is different for a simple majority than it is for absolute majority. In a simple majority, as explained in an earlier column, the majority required is the majority of those voting. So, by the definition of ‘one more than its rivals”, once one side gets at least one more vote than the other side, then a simple majority has been obtained, regardless of how many persons in total voted.
An absolute majority, on the other hand, requires a majority of the votes of all those eligible to vote. This means that all the abstentions are counted with the negative votes. It means that if in a 65-seat parliament, 32 persons vote ‘yes’, 30 vote ‘no’ and 3 abstain, the vote is not carried because the 30 ‘no’ votes have to be added to the three who abstained. This gives 33. It means that the no votes and abstentions (33) are greater than the ‘yes’ votes (32) and therefore the decision is not carried.
The minimum majority required for an absolute majority is fixed, because the number of persons eligible to vote is fixed. It also means that if in a vote of a simple majority, everyone who is eligible to vote, votes either yes or no, then the simply majority is tantamount to an absolute majority. Thus, if in a 65-seat National Assembly, everyone votes either ‘yes’ or ‘no’, the minimum simple majority is the same as the minimum absolute majority, since in both cases everyone voted.
This brings us to the formula for calculating the minimum simple and the minimum absolute majority, where there are no abstentions.
If there is an even number of total votes, then you take half and add one. Thus if there are 64 votes, half of this is 32. It means that if one side gets 32, the other side also gets 32. This is a tie. Therefore this is not one more than all rivals.
As such, for an even number, you are required to add one to the half. In that case you will add one to 32 and therefore the majority becomes 33. Another version of the same formula is to add 2 to the 64 and divide by 2. Again you will get 33.
In an odd-number parliament, however, the formula is to find the half and then round it up to the next highest whole number. This then becomes the minimum majority. Thus, in a 65-seat Assembly, half of 65 is 32.5 which when rounded to the highest whole number is 33. This is the majority, since the other side will get 32 which is one less than its rival.
Another version of the same formula is to add 1 to the total voting population of 65 and then divide by 2. This gives 66 divided by 2 or 33. Thirty-three is one more than 32 and therefore meets the definition of at least one more than its rival.
This was the formula which was used in both Vanuatu and in Anguilla. In the former, since the Speaker was eligible to vote, the voting population became 52 and not 51. Half of this was 26, to which one was added. Therefore, it required 27 votes for the vote to be carried.
In the case of Anguilla, a special majority of two-thirds quorum of the 11-person National Assembly was required for a sitting to be lawful. 11 is an odd number and two-thirds of 11 is 7.3. This was then rounded to the next highest whole number which is 8. Eight then becomes the majority.
In the case of Guyana, the total number of persons eligible to vote in the National Assembly is 65, an odd number. Half of this is 32.5. In order to find the majority, it needs to be rounded off to the next highest number which is 33.
As a check, you can apply the other version of the formula for odd-number populations. This means that one is added to 65 and divided by 2 to find the absolute majority. When this is done, the result is also 33. Thirty-three is one greater than 32 and therefore it meets the test of a majority.
There is a simple way of validating whether 33 is the least absolute majority in cases where 65 persons are eligible to vote. Recall, it was argued earlier than when everyone who is eligible to vote, votes either ‘yes’ or ‘no’, then the minimum simple majority becomes the same as the minimum absolute majority.
In a 65-seat National Assembly, the simple majority, where there are no abstentions, is 33. Therefore, it means that, where there are no abstentions, the absolute majority is equal to the simple majority which has to be the same 33.
Thirty-four (34) therefore cannot be an absolute majority if the simple majority is 33, in a situation where everyone who is eligible to vote, voted and where there were no abstentions.

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