Electoral Reform week 5 Will it mend a broken system? Joy Johnson

Electoral systems – key texts Morrison, Public Affairs for Journalists King, British constitution Laws, 22 Days in May Renwick, a citizen’s guide to electoral reform Kavanagh & Cowley, the British General Election of 2010 Various papers inc: John Curtice, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 63 No. 4, 2010, 623–638 Curtice 10/09/17/2708.aspx Curtice 10/09/17/2708.aspx Monica Threlfall, Purpose of Electoral Reform, Political Quarterly Vol 81, No 4 + her website has various papers on AV

Labour defend their position result a hung Parliament n_2010/ stm n_2010/ stm UK polarised – Conservative in the South, Labour in the North and Scotland Result - First Past the Post (winner takes all) is broken (?)

Day after the night before n_2010/ stm n_2010/ stm Clegg addresses media following the 2010 general election With no outright winner he tells reporters that he would talk to the Conservatives as they had the most votes He declares that this election showed that the present system is broken

Protesters demand electoral reform

Examples - Safe Seat – Birmingham Erdington (2005) Turnout (48.9%) Simon S.L. (lab) 16,810 (53.0%) Evidge V.T. (Con) 7,235 (22.8%) Evans, J (LD) 5,027 (15.8%) Ebanks S.E (BNP) 746 (2.3%) Williams, T (NF) 416 (1.3%) Lab majority (Robinson p10)

Result of Erdington Single plurality system Simons won the vote And with more than half the vote Other candidates votes wasted Party machines tend to ignore the safe seats and concentrate on the marginals – key seat battleground 2011 labour party defended their seats – helped prevent a Conservative overall majority

Examples – Argyll & Bute Turnout 67,271 (64.3%) Reid, A (LD) 15,786 (36.5%) Mcgrigor, J.A.R.N (Con) 10,150 (23.5%) Mnson, C (Lab) 9,692 (22.4%) Henderson, D (SSP) 881 (2.0%) LD majority 5,636

Result of Argyll & Bute Winning candidate well short of fifty per cent Those opposing Liberal Democrat accounted for nearly two-thirds of the vote

Result of 2005 UK Gen Election Party %votes No of seats % seats Labour Con Lib Dem Other

Result Labour’s majority reduced from 2001 yet the party achieved 55 per cent share of H of C seats with just 35 per cent of the national vote. Majority of the seats with a minority of the votes

Majoritarian systems Term used to classify candidates who win by obtaining majority of votes cast (first past the post can result in candidates winner on fewer than half the total votes cast)

Types of majoritarian Supplementary vote – used in London Mayoral election If only two candidates first past the post used More than two Votes cast on preference 1 st and 2 nd choice If candidate wins more than half (majority) he or she elected If not others drop out and their 2 nd preference redistributed

Alternative Vote (AV) Lib Dems compromise to get the agreement Referendum 5 May 2011 Referendum on AV had been in Labour 2010 manifesto Preferential not proportional All candidates ranked in order When all votes cast if one candidate has won over 50% elected If not candidate with the fewer first preference is eliminated and his or her are redistributed Last candidate eliminated Eventually candidate with more than 50% wins More than 50% produces legitimacy Least unpopular wins Elector’s first choice not counted

AV cont Still has single member constituency Shouldn’t produce extremist parties Result of this system would be the election of many candidates who were not the first choice of most of the electorate Leading to least common denominator of the electorate Nick Clegg in the past had called it a ‘miserable little compromise’ but this was before the coalition government Political parties still retain power to chose candidates

Proportional Representation In systems of proportional representation, every party provides a list of candidates for selection on a regional or national basis. These lists may be open or closed: an open list means electors have the ability to indicate some preference over which of the candidates they choose from the party list; a closed list means electors must vote for the party as a whole and the list is presented to them as a fait accompli. Each party standing for election wins seats in accordance with the proportion of votes it receives. A closed list system is used for European parliamentary elections.

London Assembly – 2008 election

Referendum on 5 May 2011 Provided Bill going through Parliament is passed during the next week Tories favour first past the post So do most Labour MPs although Miliband supports AV Lib Dems need to win the referendum vote to save face in the coalition But even with change will it be enough

seminars Read any of the texts as above Plus numerous websites – Electoral Reform, Constitutional Unit, BBC websites