PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION AND VOTER TRIALS

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION AND VOTER TRIALS 

Last week the Conservative Party won a majority of seats in parliament but was elected by a minority of voters. Our “winner takes all” voting system preserves an artificial two-party state, despite politics becoming more diverse than ever. The Green Party wants to move beyond the perverse system of “first past the post” that is hardwired to suit the establishment and leaves so many feeling powerless about their vote.

Westminster is elected using a system called ‘first past the post’. With this system, the link between how popular a party is at the polling booth and how many seats they get in the House of Commons is often weak and unpredictable.

Millions of people can support one party and get a single MP, while a few hundred thousand people who support a different party can get ten times as many. When Parliament doesn’t represent public opinion it has a real impact on life in Britain – it’s time we made sure seats matched votes.

At a Brighton and Hove City Council meeting last night, Councillor Mac Cafferty lead the green group in  leading calls from all 19 green councillors to ask the City Council to campaign for the introduction of fair votes in council elections.

Councillor Mac Cafferty said “Greens have had enough of votes not equalling seats. If votes matched parties in the council elections in May, we would now control the council. Had last week’s general election had fair votes, we would now have 17 Green MPs. Let’s stand up for fair votes.

I’m proud to represent a party which stands for making our electoral system fairer. Our current voting system is hard-wired to support establishment parties, forcing voters to make the choice between the least-worst option. Despite the fact that two in three people support a fairer voting system.  Tonight we are making a stand – it’s time to make votes matter.”

The Greens are supported a national petition from The Electoral Reform Society you can learn more about the petition here: 

The Electoral Reform Society is an independent campaigning organisation working to champion the rights of voters and build a better democracy in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.