The Advantages and Disadvantages of the First Past the Post Voting System

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The Advantages and Disadvantages of the First Past the Post Voting System

The First Past the Post System is the voting system used in Britain during a General Election. Britain is made up of 659 constituencies and a single Member of Parliament (MP) represents each constituency. These MP’s are voted in using the First Past the Post System and the Political Party with the most constituencies and therefore the most seats in the House of Commons becomes the Government.

The First Past the Post System is easy to understand and that is one of its advantages. In each constituency the candidate with the largest amount of votes wins and gets a seat in the House of Commons. Once all the votes have been counted and the results collated the Political Party with the most seats becomes the Government. The simplicity of this system means that voting is open to everyone who wants to vote.

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The First Past the Post System suits parties with significant socio-economic support nationally. Parties like Labour and the Conservatives gain an advantage from it as they win the largest majorities of seats for example in 1992 the Conservatives and Labour gained 93.2% of the seats even though they had only 76.3% of the vote between them. This happens because support for other parties such as the Liberals and SNP tend to be more thinly spread. This is one of the disadvantages of the First Past the Post System. With two parties usually gaining large proportions of the seats we end ...

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