Rumblings from the keyboard of Pete Eveleigh,
a web designer and developer based in Gloucester, UK

Why the UK voting system is wrong.

Posted: May 6th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: General, Social Comment | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

Can’t believe that the Conservatives have won Gloucester. But then again only around 40% of the electorate bothered to vote here.

What’s wrong with people? I’ll be honest, there was no candidate that really struck me as being worth my cross but I weighed things up and voted for who I wanted to win, knowing that they would not. Did I Waste my vote? Perhaps. But surely one should vote with their convictions rather than try to manipulate the least undesirable result? I voted with my head and heart and a blind faith in the system – just in case miracles happened.

So you get splits like this, for Barnwood, with 5 candidates standing. Resulting in 66% of those that bothered to vote NOT voting for the winner:

Trade Unionists 115 (3.6%)
Cons 1,086 (34.07%)
UKIP 209 (6.55%)
Lib Dem 1,059 (33.22%)
Lab 718 (22.52%)

Or this for Quedgeley Severn Vale, with just 3 candidates standing, in which 60% voted AGAINST the winner.

Lab 477 (25%)
Lib Dem 750 (39%)
Cons 670 (35%)

When you have more than 2 parties the system doesn’t work especially when there is no real difference between the candidates (i.e. they are all as bad as each other). So one candidate gets very slightly more votes than the others and is deemed the winner but in reality they have fairly low overall support.

If no candidate gets over 50% of the support then how is that democratic?

If you support the winning party then great. You got the result you wanted but don’t you still question the fairness of a system in which the majority of people voted against the eventual winner? It’s nothing to do with which party you support. It’s about having a system that represents the majority preference.

Too late now, but if you didn’t bother to vote or voted No in the AV campaign then shame on you.