“For most normal people, politics is a distant, occasionally irritating fog”— Tony Blair (British prime minister, 1997-2007)

We do not get much fog in Bermuda. Mist, yes. But we get Tony Blair’s drift. A great majority of voters likely do not spend all or a lot of their time thinking about politics. Except maybe at election time when we get to choose our government for the next five years. You would think. But that wasn’t exactly the case this time around: only 55 per cent of the registered electorate came out to vote. That’s 24,779 people out of a possible 45,604 potential voters.

There is something wrong with this picture. We know all about the issues of absentee ballots and a voting register that needs to be updated. There is a job there for those who were elected. They just need to get on with it.

Beyond that, there seems to be a growing and fairly widespread belief among readers, politicians and pundits that the reason behind the low turnout was disenchantment and/or disillusionment and/or dissatisfaction with politics. Take your pick. They all amount to the same thing.

Frankly, a sad state of affairs.

Some put it down to the Westminster system, the parties and the politics they engender. I’m not so sure. My own view has been always that over the years we have failed to fully develop what we achieved in 1968. History will record that cross-party co-operation and collaboration have not been pursued with the same vigour and enthusiasm as maintaining power and winning elections. The committee system has been pretty much a total failure. The all-important oversight body, the Public Accounts Committee, serves as Exhibit No 1.

The legislature is governed by an Act of Parliament that is more than 65 years old. The Parliament Act 1957 still refers to visitors in the galleries as “strangers”. It is due for an overhaul, and committees should be mandated into existence, and operation, and no longer left to the rules of the House or Senate, which may or may not be enforced. They need bite. All hearings should become public and available online where provision can be made for questions and comment.

As I see it, the problem is not just with whoever happens to be in power, but the structures of power. Our fundamental systems need reforming, not just new faces.

Some of the answers readers have put forward include:

• Reduce the number of MPs

Cut the number in half and effect savings. The downside to this is that there will be few members to populate oversight committees, a weak back bench and a weak Opposition.

• Some form of proportional representation

I have already mentioned how this was dismissed as an unworkable idea back in 1979. Sure, times change, but it does appear to be without legs. We know what some would like to see: a legislature that reflects in seats the actual vote. But quite how that would work requires close examination. Straight up-and-down proportional representation means the parties choose a list of candidates and the order in which they will be elected. Would voting be island-wide? How would that work for independents? Or perhaps the answer is to introduce ranked-choice voting by constituency so no candidates win until they have the support of 50 per cent of the voters?

• Say goodbye to an appointed Senate

This could be the body by which voting by proportional representation is introduced. For fixed terms of, say, five years from three electoral areas — east (three members), west (three) and central (five). The Upper House would still provide the oversight that it provides at present.

All of the above would require changes to the Constitution Order. We cannot be sure of the disposition to change in London. Maybe they would enjoy a trip to a conference in Bermuda. Mind you, the last time the order was amended — for single seats — it was done without one. Period. But single seats had been long a plank of Progressive Labour Party platforms dating back to 1966 and it was elected as the government in 1998 for the first time with an overwhelming majority.

So any demand for constitutional change would almost certainly require strong evidence of support. As would a referendum on independence.

But some work is purely internal — much like overdue overhaul of the Parliamentary Election Act 1978 and the Parliament Act 1957. Note those dates. All that is required in this century is the political will to get on with it.

A final word of caution here: wishing for conversion to a cause is not a political strategy. Neither is rallying the base. We see a lot of that during campaigns. Winning over voters looking for change means concentrating on things that matter in their daily lives. At the same time, the groundwork for pushback or disillusionment comes when those elected fail to deliver on their promises.

No one ever said it would be easy.

• John Barritt is a former elected member of the Bermuda legislature where he served for 18 years. This is the last of a four-part series in which he takes a close look at the 2025 General Election and what it may mean. Dialogue is welcomed. John may be reached at jbarritt@ibl.bm