Greens Say YES to the Alternative Vote in the Referendum on 5th May
Written by Geoff Collard Monday, 07 March 2011
Bristol Green Party saw campaigners for a ‘YES to AV’ vote in the forthcoming referendum on our parliamentary voting system on May 5th winning the argument in Saturday evening’s packed public debate at the Council House. The Green Party supports the change.
The referendum will decide whether Britain should change its voting system from First Past The Post (FPTP) to the Alternative Vote (AV) in future elections of MPs to parliament at Westminster. There is a very clear video explanation of the AV system at http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/5_may/referendum_2011.aspx
Speaking in favour of the YES campaign and changing the voting system to AV was the well known singer and campaigner Billy Bragg and Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Bristol West in last year’s General Election, Paul Smith. The NO side was represented by a Bristol University lecturer and the new Kingswood Conservative MP, Chris Skidmore.
Georgina Bavetta, the Green Party’s candidate for Clifton in the city council elections, which will be held on the same day as the referendum, was at the debate. Speaking afterwards, Ms Bavetta, said: “Chris Skidmore seemed to have no answers to questions put to him by members of the public. Asked how he could claim to have a mandate to represent the people of Kingswood in parliament when he got only 40% of the vote in last year’s election, Mr Skidmore could only keep repeating that the person who won the most votes should win.” Ms Bavetta, who is a politics student at Bristol University, added: “Mr Skidmore seemed to be floundering, and had no real arguments to give in favour of keeping the existing first past the post system.”
Under our current system of electing Members of Parliament, the candidate who comes first (past the post) wins the seat. It is like a horse race. But electing our MPs is too important to be treated as a horse race, say the Greens. The Green Party thinks this system is unrepresentative: in fact most MPs and many councillors are elected on winning only a minority of the votes cast in an election under FPTP. Not a single party in a General Election since 1945 has won a majority of the votes cast, and the Greens say this is not democracy. It is time to change the system.
The Alternative Vote is not the Green Party’s preferred choice of parliamentary voting system, but it is much more democratic than First Past The Post, since under AV a candidate has to obtain over half the votes cast in an election in order to win. It also gives the voter real choice (something which the Conservatives, who hypocritically oppose this change, say they want people to have). The voter can choose to put his or her real choice first, knowing that if that candidate doesn’t win, then their second, third or fourth choice will have a chance of winning. The great advantage of the Alternative Vote therefore, is that as well as being more democratic, it will get rid of the need for tactical voting.
Chris Millman, another Green Party supporter at the debate, said: “The No to AV people on the panel in the debate tried to say that AV is too complicated. This is nonsense.” Under AV, voters simply rank the candidates in order of their preference by marking 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on against the names of the candidates on the ballot paper. The voter can vote for as many or as few candidates as he or she wishes. “If the voter does not want to vote for anyone other than their first choice, he or she simply puts a 1 by the name of that person and leaves the rest of the ballot paper blank,” continued Mr Millman. He added, “There is no compulsion to vote for more than one candidate, but the point is it gives the voter the option to do so if they wish. To suggest this Alternative Voting is too complicated is insulting to the voters.”
This transfer of votes, if necessary, takes place only during the counting of the votes. If the voter’s first choice of candidate does not win, then their vote is given instead to their second choice candidate who they listed on their ballot paper, and if necessary then to their third choice and so on until one candidate gets at least half the votes cast in the election. This ensures that the final winning candidate has the greatest overall support of all the candidates in the election.
The Green Party believes this is much more democratic, as it allows the voter to vote for their real choice first. This will get rid of ‘tactical voting’ because the voter will know that their vote won’t be wasted if they believe that their first choice of candidate may not win.