Britain has always had a winner takes all, "first-past-the-post", electoral system. This was rarely questioned during the centuries when two political parties - Whigs and Tories, then Conservative and Liberal, and more recently Conservative and Labour - dominated the political landscape.
In recent decades, however, the emergence of significant support for the Liberal Democrats as a third party, 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.
Criticism of Current Voting System
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 already been introduced for European elections, and for Scottish and Welsh Assembly elections, and the failure of the current system to produce a clear cut result to the General Election of May 2010, along with the the Liberal Democrats demand for electoral reform as the price of coalition, has strengthened the calls for PR,
Different Voting Systems Available
What are the different voting systems might be considered and what are their respective advantages and disadvantages? The three main systems which may be considered are discussed below, though there are a number of variations and compromises which are practiced in different countries.
First-Past-The-Post
Under the current First-Past-The-Post system:
- The country is divided into 649 single member constituencies.
- Each voter has a single vote and the candidate with the largest number of votes is elected. The system has normally led to one party obtaining an overall majority of seats in Parliament, and that party forms the government.
- On the 3 or 4 occasion in the last century when no one party has achieved an overall majority a coalition, a coalition has been formed to create an overall majority, or on one occasion a minority government has ruled.
The advantages of a First-Past-The-Post system are:
- It generally (though not invariably) produces a clear majority for one or other of the two main parties.
- With a clear majority, the governing party can impose its will in parliament with little need to compromise, leading to decisive government.
- It is relatively easy for the electorate to eject an unpopular government in a general election.
- Individual Members of Parliament are directly accountable to the electors in their constituency. Arguably this makes MPs more responsive to the will of their electorate and less to the Party Whips, or business managers, in Parliament.
The disadvantages of a First-Past-The-Post system are:
- Minority parties are under represented in Parliament; they may win two or three million votes without gaining a single parliamentary seat if those votes are distributed evenly across the country.
- This can lead to a feeling of disenfranchisement and disillusion in minority party voters.
- Nationally, a party with as few as 30-35% of the votes may be able to command a parliamentary majority large enough to force through legislation opposed by the majority of voters.
- If constituencies are not of even size, or if parties' votes are not evenly spread across constituencies, a party may win less seats than a rival party with fewer votes.
The Alternative Vote
The Alternative Vote system of PR works as follows:
- Single member constituencies remain.
- Each voter votes for as many candidates as he or she wishes to, placing them in a numerical order of preference.
- If any candidate wins an overall majority of the first preference votes cast at the first count he or she is elected. If not, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated and their 2nd preference votes are allocated to the other candidates.
- This continues until one candidate achieves over 50% of the vote.
The advantages of the Alternative Voting system are:
- The direct link between voters and constituency MPs remains.
- The winning candidate is supported by a majority of voters.
- A clear parliamentary majority for one party is the most likely outcome.
The disadvantages of the Aternative Voting system are:
- Minority parties are still likely to be under-represented.
- The system may encourage or compel voters to cast lower preference for candidates of whom they know little or nothing.
More information on how the Alternative Vote system works in practice.
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.
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.
- Where candidates are selected from party lists, MPs are more likely to be influenced by party than voter pressure.
More information about the Single Transferable Voting system and how it works in practice.
Other constitutional issues facing the new Cameron/Clegg coalition.
Sources
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 ...
