Electoral Reform

AV referendum and PR Joy Johnson week 5

Electoral systems – key texts

• Morrison, essential public affairs for journalists ch. 4• King, British constitution• Laws, 22 Days in May• Renwick, a citizen’s guide to electoral reform• Kavanagh & Cowley, the British General Election of 2010• Various papers inc:• John Curtice, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 63 No. 4, 2010,

623–638• Monica Threlfall, Purpose of Electoral Reform, Political

Quarterly Vol 81, No 4 + her website has various papers on AV

Labour defend their positionConservatives didn’t win a majority - result a

hung Parliament

• UK polarised – Conservative in the South, Labour in the North and Scotland

• the strongest argument of the supporters of First Past the Post (winner takes all) that it produces clear government majorities has failed

• NB. Similarly PR which was meant to stop a clear victor failed in Scotland with majority SNP administration

Day after the night before

• Clegg addressed media following the 2010 general election

• With no outright winner he tells reporters that he would talk to the Conservatives as they had the most votes

• He declared that this election showed that the present system is broken

• Love-in in the Downing Street Garden

Result of 2005 UK Gen Election

• Party %votes No of seats % seats • Labour 35.3 356 55.1• Con 32.3 198 30.7• Lib Dem 22.1 62 9.6• Other 10.3 30 4.6

Result

• Labour’s majority reduced from 2001 yet the party achieved 55 per cent share of H of C seats with just 35 per cent of the national vote.

• Majority of the seats with a minority of the votes

2010 election

• NB Conservatives now have one MP in Scotland

Majoritarian systems

• Term used to classify candidates who win by obtaining majority of votes cast

• (first past the post can result in candidates winning on fewer than half the total votes cast)

Types of majoritarian

• Supplementary vote – used in London Mayoral election

• If only two candidates first past the post used• More than two• Votes cast on preference 1st and 2nd choice• If candidate wins more than half (majority) he

or she elected• If not others drop out and their 2nd preference

redistributed

Alternative Vote (AV)• Lib Dems compromise to get the agreement• Referendum 5 May 2011• Referendum on AV had been in Labour 2010 manifesto • Preferential not proportional• All candidates ranked in order • When all votes cast if one candidate has won over 50% elected• If not candidate with the fewer first preference is eliminated and his or

her are redistributed • Last candidate eliminated• Eventually candidate with more than 50% wins• More than 50% produces legitimacy• Least unpopular wins• Elector’s first choice not counted

AV cont

• Still has single member constituency• Shouldn’t produce extremist parties• Result of this system would be the election of many

candidates who were not the first choice of most of the electorate

• Leading to least common denominator of the electorate• Nick Clegg in the past had called it a ‘miserable little

compromise’ but this was before the coalition government• This statement came back to haunt him and was used

against him during the referendum• Political parties still retain power to chose candidates

Proportional Representation

• In systems of proportional representation, every party provides a list of candidates for selection on a regional or national basis.

• These lists may be open or closed: an open list means electors have the ability to indicate some preference over which of the candidates they choose from the party list; a closed list means electors must vote for the party as a whole and the list is presented to them as a fait accompli.

• Each party standing for election wins seats in accordance with the proportion of votes it receives.

A closed list system is used for European parliamentary elections.

London Assembly – 2008 election

Referendum on AV5 May 2011

• Tories favoured first past the post• So did most Labour MPs although Miliband supported AV• Lib Dems got the referendum as part of coalition

agreement trading • They didn’t get a commitment that officially they

wouldn’t vigorously campaign against it p23 Baston and Ritchie Don’t Take No For An Answer

• By the time of the referendum Lib Dem brand had become contaminated

• First past the post fought ruthless personal campaign

Why did AV campaigners lose

• UK 2010 general election produced coalition on first past the post

• Referendum held on the same day as other elections

• Turn out high • Fear of change• People didn’t see the necessity for changing

how we vote• FPTP – played up cost of change

AV campaigners failed

• AV campaigners failed to understand that they needed to fight and win a single issue campaign, not an election.

• No to AV camp had the easier task. • No-ers didn’t have to win the case for first

past the post (FPTP) – they simply had to convince people the case for AV was unproven.

Clegg factor

• The ‘No’ campaign ramped up the fear factor, pumped up the volume of their indignation, exaggerated the threat of AV, and personified the enemy. Vote no, or get Nick Clegg – forever. Save the world from Clegg.

Electoral Reform/Parliamentary reform

• PR off the agenda for years• Boundary changes • Reduction in the number of MPs• Fixed term Parliaments• Open primaries Conservatives tried these at

the last election (Dr Wolloston MP for Totness)• House of Lords reform going through

Parliament

House of Lords reform

• Pursued by Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg• Labour’s leader in the Lords, Lady Royall warns

in Guardian 9 Feb, 2012 that if it becomes centre piece of the next Queen’s Speech they will not be able to scrutinise any other bills

David Steel

• Private members’ bill• To allow for the House to expel peers and

early retirements to help reduce the Lords’ hefty numbers.

Tensions between Govt and Lords

• Significant number of defeats for govt on welfare Bill – govt introduced ‘financial privilege’

• Defeats also on Health and Social Care Bill• Conservatives appointing more coalition lords

to avoid further defeats in the Lords

Stages of the Bill

• http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-12/houseoflordsreformhl.html

seminars

• Different types of voting systems• Voting day• House of Lords reform