How does Proportional Representation actually work?
in the current system – mps are elected per area so if it is close in that area it doesn’t matter because the winner is still the winner and then everything there no longer matters in proportional representation – mps are proportional to how many votes that part gets as a whole country so the votes carry through each area the problem with this is that then an area that votes conservative enormously may get a labour candidate for instance
First thing to remember is that STVPR (Single transferable vote proportional representation) is exactly the same as ‘first past the post’ (what we use now) – just so long as one candidate polls more than 50% of the vote – gets more than half of all the votes cast. Regardless of how many candidates are on the ballot paper. If you do that, you’re in. Under ‘first past the post’ (what we have now) a majority of constituencies return Members of Parliament for whom the vast majority of that constituency’s voters have not voted. STVPR addresses this issue. In an untypical constituency like say, Suffolk Central, there would be no difference to the result produced on Thursday under ‘first past the post’: Daniel Poulter, Conservative, 27,125 votes, 50.8% of the vote. So in this example, Daniel Poulter would still win. Because more than half of all the voters in Suffolk Central who voted, voted for him. The second thing to remember is that a more democratic system for representing, as accurately
