London protests for fairer votes in UK election
Even purple animals were chanting at the 'Take Back Parliament' protest. Photo credit: Hanna Hauck
Britain’s so-called “First-past-the-post” electoral system has been called into question by protesters following the general elections last week.
Protesters gathered outside the Work Foundation in London today, where the Liberal Democrats reportedly held a meeting, asking the party not to agree to an offer by either the Conservatives or Labour unless it included a referendum on introducing an electoral system based on proportional representation.
The group called ‘Take Back Parliament’ chanted “Fair votes now” and “No deal without PR (proportional representation)”, calling for what they say is a fairer voting system.
Currently, the so-called ‘first past the post’ system is used in parliamentary elections in the UK. This means that only the candidate who gained the (simple) majority of votes in his or her constituency will represent his electorate in Parliament.
Guy Aitchison of ‘Take Back Parliament’ said millions of votes were lost under this system.
“If you don’t vote for the winning candidate in your constituency, then your vote has no influence on the make-up of Parliament”, he said.
Bigger parties tend to benefit from a simple majority system, as they can secure a big share of seats in the House of Commons. Smaller parties, however, are often left with a small amount of seats, even if they get a substantial amount of votes.
Protesters were marching for a better electoral system in the UK. Photo credit: Hanna Hauck
In last week’s elections in the UK, for example, the Liberal Democrats could secure 23% of the votes, but received only 57 seats. The Conservatives, on the other hand, received 36% of votes and 306 seats, whereas Labour got 29% of votes and 258 seats.
This is why ‘Take Back Parliament’ favours a system based on proportional representation.
“Under a fair voting system all the parties receive seats in Parliament according to the votes they receive”, Guy Aitchison claimed.
However, the BBC pointed out that the first-past-the-post system also has benefits. It is simple and tends to produce results very quickly, as well as clear majorities in Parliament. Also, under the current voting system in the UK each constituency has its “own” representative, whom people can contact about concerns and problems.
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