Voting systems

Voting systems

1. First Past The Post (FPTP)

   • Used to elect MPs in UK parliment there is 650 seats and each constituancy elects 1.
   • The Winning party & Candidate is based on having the Largest/Highest number of votes but not nessessaraly a majority to win.
   • Maintains 2 - party system within the UK govenrment
     • Ensures that Proportion of seats won by either Conservative or Labour is far greater than the proportion od votes they recive.
     • 2015 General Election the combined Conservative/Labour vote was 69.0% yet they recived 85.0% of the seats.
     • Political commintatoers argue that FPTP acts as a life support machine for the 2 - party system and distort the will of the electorate.
   • Comfortable, strong, stable govenment
     • The winner takes all method is used when allocating seats for FPTP, meaning the uk government most times end up with a majority Labour or Conservative party government.
     • The conservaties under Margratet Thatcher enjoyed landslide victories in 1983 and 1987, as did Labour under tony Blair in 1997 and 2001
     • Usually exaggerates the performance of the most popular party and provides it with a comfortable majority in parliment.
   • Unfair to Smaller Parties
     • Discriminates against Third parties and smaller parties who are supported throughout the UK but not concentrated in particular regions. Lib Dems consistantly suffered: no rewards for coming 2nd in 300 constituences.
     • 2010 general election, the Lib Dems won 23% of the vote but only received 9% (23) of seats but Labour won 29% of the vote and gained 307 seats.
     • Often then leading to wasted and tactical voting, 74% of votes in 2015 were wasted
   • Limited Choices
     • Many Constituencies are safe seats, in which one party has massive majority over its rivals and is unlikely to lose
     • All of Glasgows Westminister constituentes are now held by the SNP, and the Conservatives do very badly.
     • Voters whose favoured party has little support are likely to engage in tactical voting.

2. Additional Members System (AMS)

   • A Mixed electoral system used to elect the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly since 1999.
   • Cast 2 votes - First vote is to elect the 73 winning candidates in the local constituency elections using FPTP - Second is a multi-member constituency, choosing between parties.
   • A party thats has a clear lead in the constituency election will do less well in the reginal list election.
   • A Fairer Result
     • Increases proportionality by reducing the gap between shares of votes and share of seats.
     • In contrast, in 2010 the FPTP system gave labour almost 70% of Scottish seats in the HOC with only 42% of Scottish votes and in 2015 the SNP won 95% of the Scottish seats with only 50% of the votes.
   • Greater voter choice
     • there has been a larger choice in the number of parties and individual candidates compeating for seats in the second ballot.
     • In 2016, no less than 23 parties and independents contested the second ballot in both Glasgow and the Lothians
     • The second ballot and the increase in the number of parties have given voters the opportunity to vote for more than one party
     • However, the 2007 and 2011 results emphasise that smaller parties aren't guaranteed representation if the battle between the major parties intensifies, meaning that their share of the second ballet regional vote falls below 5-6%
   • Electorate Confusion
     • May 2007 Scottish parliament and local council elections created confusion among the electorate.
     • A change in ballot papers for the parlimentary elections and a switch from FPTP to STV for local council elections seemed to confuse some voters.
     • In the 2003 elections there had been 45,700 rejected ballot papers; in the 2007 elections, a staggering 140,000 were rejected.
     • This was not an issue in the 2011 and 2016 elections