Should the Westminster Electoral System be Reformed?

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Should the Westminster Electoral System be Reformed?

The First Past the Post system is used in the UK to elect representatives for constituencies into the Westminster Parliament. The system is a plurality system; candidates need a simple majority to win a seat, which is considered disproportionate by some. However is it is apparent that the system should not be reformed.

One argument in favor of the reformation of the system is evoked from the disproportionality of the system, in terms of distribution of seat compared to votes won. In the 2010 General Election the winning party, the Conservatives, won 36% of the votes but were awarded 47% of the seats, whereas the Liberal Democrats won 23% of the votes but were awarded only 9% of the seats. This clearly illustrates the disproportional distribution of seats in the system. In a study by the Electoral Reform Society they illustrated that with the Single Transferable Vote system the results of the election would be far more proportional. This relates to the system being a two party system where smaller parties find it extremely difficult to gain representation. This may be due to the concentrated vote of the two main parties, whereas support for smaller parties are usually dispersed sparingly throughout the nation, leading to a question of the fairness of the system and the legitimacy of the winning party.

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Following on from this, the result of the system being dominated in favour of the two main parties causes the problem of wasted votes of the electorates who vote in support of the smaller parties who have limited or no opportunity to win a seat in parliament or in turn win the election. This means that their votes are ‘wasted’ as the votes they cast do not equate to anything. This is a cause for the next argument as to why the Westminster electoral system should be reformed, tactical voting. Tactical voting is a term used to describe a ...

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