Alternative vote system would have had minimal impact on outcome of general election, the Liberal-Democrats gaining 22 seats according to analysis by the Electoral Reform Society giving them 79 seats instead of 57 MP’s and the smaller parties only 28 MP’s. If STV had been the electoral system then the Liberal-Democrats would have got 162 instead of 57 MP’s and the smaller parties would have had 35 seats compared with 28 under FPTP and AV. So under STV the Conservatives would have had 246 MP’s, Labour 207 MP’s and the Liberal-Democrats 162. Under AV the Conservatives would have had 281 seats Labour 262 seats and the Liberal-Democrats 79 seats.
If we want an election system that reflects the democratic choice of the electorate neither FPTP nor AV provide it, what is needed is the option of STV. So do you vote for AV or FPTP if you want a democratic electoral system, if the system doesn’t change then the pressure for reform will continue. If the system changes to AV then this’ll be accepted by the three main parties and any chance of progressive left parties such as the green, socialists or communists having a voice will be denied, as for the BNP and UKIP they like the Conservatives like they system of FPTP as they gain mostly from people not bothering to vote. When more people vote their percentage goes down. If ordinary working class people feel their vote counts the left vote has a tendency to increase, so let’s vote in a way that gets STV on the agenda rather than settling for AV.
A Future That Works
NO2aTory/Liberal coalition - Vote with your feet for an alternative to a neo-liberal economy and neo-conservative state Yes2aLeftFront and a Red/Green Left Alliance
With STV voters would be able to choose the political party they want and know that their votes would count in forming the government elected. Under FPTP if they live in a safe Conservative, Liberal-Democrat seat or have a right-wing Labour MP and want to vote for a left-wing candidate they haven’t any democratic way of making their preference count, this is still the case with AV. Under STV they can vote for a communist, green-left or socialist party candidate and it will count as part of the national vote proportionally given for all parties in the election, this is how democracy should work.
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