We all know that first past the post is an unfair electoral
system that produces disproportionate results. First past the post elections in
multi-member constituencies (such as the wards in London borough elections) are
particularly disproportionate.
A good example is what happened to the Hackney Green party
in this May's local elections. The party did extraordinarily well to finish a
clear second in those elections in terms of votes cast. However because of the
unfair electoral system they won no seats and finished behind the Tories and
Lib Dems as well Labour where it counts in the council chamber. This cant be
right or fair.
The Hackney Green Party has launched a petition to call on
Government to adopt a fairer voting system for local elections in England and
Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland already use a form of proportional
representation - the Single Transferable Vote).
I would urge you to sign this petition.
The petition calls for the Government to adopt the same
voting system for local elections as is used for the London Assembly (and
Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly) - the Additional Member System. I've
done some rough calculations (using some stylised assumptions) to calculate
what the result in Hackney would have been under either the Additional Member
System or the Single Transferable Vote. I'm sure you will agree that either
form of proportional representation would be an improvement on what actually
happened (and I agree with the Hackney Greens that AMS is the better form of
system to go for even if it would not have delivered them as many seats as
STV).
%age votes FPTP seats
AMS seats STV seats
Labour
56% 50
32
40
Green
21%
0 12
13
Tory
12%
4
7 3
Lib Dem
9%
3 5
1
TUSC
2%
0 1
0
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