Until recently Proportional Representation has not been a major issue in the British electoral system. Third parties have rarely won significant support, and a first-past-the-post voting system, tending to produce a clear result between the two dominant parties, has enjoyed broad support. This has stifled any serious discussion of Proportional Representation.
In recent years, however, the emergence of significant support for the Liberal Democrats, and of several smaller parties with varying levels of support, has created a number of electoral anomalies; small parties are generally under represented in a first-past-the-post system, while fragmentation of the vote means that the winning party has usually failed to achieve a majority of votes nationally, or even in individual constituencies.
The current first-past-the-post voting system has therefore attracted a growing number of critics in recent years. Unsurprisingly, this has been predominantly but not exclusively, from the Liberal Democrats and the smaller parties. Proportional representation has been introduced for European elections and Scottish and Welsh Assembly elections, but the indecisive outcome of the May 2010 General Election has stimulated renewed interest in PR for the House of Commons at Westminster.
There are two principle systems of proportional representation practiced in different democracies around the world: the Alternative Vote, and the Single Transferable Vote. The latter is the “purest” system of proportional representation, and is the preferred option of the Liberal Democrats. Why is this so? How would STV work in British elections, and what are its advantages and disadvantages and likely effects on British Democracy?
The Single Transferable Vote
The Single Transferable Vote system of PR works as follows.
- The country is divided into a number of larger, multi member constituencies, with the number of members for each reflecting the size of the population.
- Each elector votes for as many candidates as he or she wishes to, placing them in a numerical order of preference.
- A quota of votes is set for election. If any candidate achieves this number of first preference votes he or she is elected, and their remaining votes are redistributed among the other candidates.
- This continues until all seats in the constituency have been filled.
- Under a variation of this system voters vote for parties, and candidates are elected in the order that they are placed on their party lists.
Theoretical Advantages and Disadvantages of the Single Transferable Vote
The advantages of the Single Transferable voting system are:
- Small parties are more likely to achieve parliamentary representation.
- Constituents have a choice of MPs with whom to raise their problems.
The disadvantages of the Single Transferable voting system are:
- Single party governments are rare.
- Who is to govern is normally decided by negotiation between parties after the election, denying the electorate a direct choice.
- Small, possibly extreme, parties may have disproportionate influence, or even hold the balance of power.
- It may be difficult for the electorate to eject an unpopular party or leader from government.
- The bond between voters and an individual constituency MP is broken.
- Where candidates are selected from party lists, MPs are more likely to be influenced by party than voter pressure.
- Party Lists also make it difficult or impossible for voters to reject an unpopular candidate. An especially perverse example of this effect occurred in Germany’s 1998 elections when Helmut Kohl was decisively rejected in his own constituency, but returned to the Bundestag because he appeared at the head of his Party List.
Single Transferable Voting Experience in UK European Elections
The 2008 UK European Election illustrates how the STV system works in practice:
The UK European Election Voting System.
- The country is divided into regions, each of which elects 3-10 MEPs.
- Political Parties list their candidates in the Party’s order of preference. Only independent candidates are listed individually.
- Voters have one vote which they may make for a Party, or for an independent candidate.
- A set quota of votes is required to win a seat. The first seat is allocated to the Party or individual with the largest number of votes which exceeds that total. That Party’s votes are then divided by 2 ( the number of seats already won + 1) for the allocation of the second seat, and so on until all seats are allocated.
- Seats won by Parties are allocated in the sequence they appear on the Party List.
Results of the 2008 UK European Election:
The percentage of votes and number of seats gained by Parties (excluding Northern Ireland which has a slightly different system) were:
- Conservative. 4,198,394 – 26.
- UKIP. 2,498,226 – 13.
- Labour. 2.381,760 – 13.
- Liberal Democrat. 2,080,613 – 11.
- Green. 1,303,745 – 2.
- BNP. 943,598 – 2.
- SNP. 321,007 – 2.
- Plaid Cymru. 126,702 – 1.
Conclusions:
- The allocation of seats was far more closely related to vote numbers than would have occurred under either the First Past The Post or Alternative Voting system. This ensured representation for smaller parties who would have been under-represented or even unrepresented under a First Past the Post or an Alternative Vote electoral system.
- However, in national elections a hung Parliament, and subsequent coalition or minority government would have resulted. It would also have been the likely outcome of all national elections in recent years had they been held under an STV system.
- The loss of the single constituency MP and the Party List system makes MEPs more beholden to their Party than to the electorate for continued office. It would have been impossible for voters in this election to reject senior members of either major Party as they did in both the 1997 and 2010 General elections.
More Information About Constitutional Reform and Voting Systems for the UK
Advantages and disadvantages of other voting systems
The operation of the Alternative Vote System.
Constitutional issues facing the new Cameron/Clegg coalition
Sources
Ace, The Electoral Knowledge Network - Australia the Alternative Vote.
The Electoral Commission.
The BBC News Page.
Tony Allen - In 2004 I began my "fourth career" as a freelance writer. In my first career, after training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, I ...
