Why?

The next UK general election promises to be most interesting.

We have always had a good number of seats in which one party has a clear and fairly safe majority. In other more marginal constituencies many voters have taken the option to cast votes tactically, supporting the candidate they hope will defeat the one they dislike most rather than the one they actually prefer.

All of which worked well enough when we had only three significant parties. But next time things will be different. We are very likely to have six significant parties. There will be fewer safe seats. In marginal seats voters will be faced with an intolerable range of tactical options, aggravated by much negative campaigning in which various parties claim that “only we can beat the incumbent here”. And it will be entirely possible that some MPs will be elected with the support of 20% of those who bother to vote.^[1] Something needs to be done.

An obvious starting point is to formalise the tactical voting by giving voters the option to declare their preferences explicitly. Then if their first choice is eliminated for lack of support their vote goes to their second choice, and then possibly to their third choice. On the other hand it is entirely possible that their first choice will actually win. And it is also entirely possible that their third choice is the one they would have gambled on as the best way to keep their sixth choice out. Surely this way of voting is very greatly more democratic than having just a single “X” to vote with?

Will you join us in supporting an immediate switch to such a system? It is essentially what used to be called AV, the subject of a failed referendum in 2011. But it remains the only adjustment to the current system which (a) is tolerably democratic, (b) involves no boundary changes, and (c) can be done with a simple manual count. And it is the only one which can feasibly be implemented before the next election.

We welcome the APPG proposal for a national Commission on electoral reform, and very much hope that its deliberations will lead to some good recommendations for the longer-term future of the UK voting system. ^[2]However, even in the unlikely event that the envisaged Commission were able to do so soon enough to be able to instigate changes for the next general election, it would not be able to offer anything practicable in the short term other than an optional preference system such as we advocate.^[3]

Moreover, the envisaged system is likely to provide a good basis for what the Commission eventually recommend.
– It can readily be extended to STV, should that be the preferred option. STV is in fact just the extension of the system to multi-seat constituencies.
– Preferential voting provides a much better basis than does FPTP for an Additional Member System (AMS) such as is used in elections for the Scottish parliament.

[1] Unlikely. But six candidates with 20%, 18%, 17%, 16%, 15%, 14% would do that. What a farce.
[2] Previously said “However, it is unlikely that they will be able to do so soon enough to be able to propose changes for the next general election; and even if they did they would not be able to offer anything practicable in the short term other than an optional preference system such as we advocate.”
[3] Furthermore, it is possible than not having PV in the next election will rule out the possibility of any change at all to our very bad electoral system for the next decade or more. The mood now seems receptive. The mood after the next election may not be. We very much need PN Now.

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There is an urgent need to have an improved electoral system before the next general election.

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