AV is not enough.

The  new Conservative and Liberal Democrat government has today announced its proposals for government.  There’s quite a bit in their statement about political reform – most of it pretty positive.  The statement has the following t0 say on electoral reform:

“The parties will bring forward a referendum bill on electoral reform, which includes provision for the introduction of the alternative vote in the event of a positive result for the referendum, as well as for the creation of fewer and more equal sized constituencies.  Both parties will whip their parliamentary parties in both houses to support a simple majority referendum on the alternative vote, without prejudice to the positions parties will take during such a referendum”

Unfortunately this doesn’t begin to meet the requirement for a fair voting system.  You can read all about the alternative voting system on the Electoral Reform Society’s website, which begins by stating “The Alternative Vote (AV) is very much like First-Past-The-Post” and ends with the conclusion “AV is thus not a proportional system, and can in fact be more disroportional than FPTP”.

The alternative vote system is not going to solve the problems in the UK’s political system.  It won’t increase representation for smaller parties.  It will reinforce the views of the established political centre and act in the interests of keeping the large parties in power.

Alternative voting is not the fair, democratic electoral system we wish to see.  It represents a bare minimum – the smallest possible step that the established parties are prepared to take in response to pressure for increased democracy – but a step that won’t lead to any changes.

If Parliament votes to introduce an alternative vote system we will have lost our only chance to introduce a fair electoral system.   If the alternative voting system enters into law, there will almost certainly not be another opportunity to introduce a better system in our lifetimes.

AV is not enough.  We need a truly proportional representation system such as the single transferable vote system.

[If you’d like to read more about the different types of electoral system the BBC has produced an excellent simple guide which you can visit here.]