THE UK Independence Party firmly supports AV. Traditional First Past the Post (FPTP) has become a broken system. It no longer reflects properly what the voters want.

At the 1955 general election — the high-water mark of the two-party system — nine out of ten MPs elected won more than 50% of the vote in their constituency. At the general election in May 2010 only one in three MPs were elected with 50% or more of the vote.

The 2005 general election gave Labour a majority of 66 seats under FPTP. But a closer inspection of the result reveals some disturbing truths. In England, Labour  got 60,000 votes fewer than the Conservatives but won 92 more parliamentary seats. Overall, Labour won decisively but received only a little more than a third of all votes cast.

AV would go some way to redressing the imbalances and unfairness that is the inevitable consequence of FPTP. At the last general election UKIP polled 919,546 votes and did not even come close to winning a seat in Westminster.

Compare that to the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland who polled just 168,216 votes and were rewarded with eight — yes, eight — seats.

AV will mean that people will no longer have to vote tactically on the first ballot. They can vote for the candidate they prefer and their vote will still count. The electors can then give their next preference to the party or candidate they next prefer. AV sweeps away the blight on British democracy of people having to vote first for a second choice candidate in order to stop another party or candidate winning. 

Further, a key element of AV is that by definition the winning candidate will have received at least 50% of the vote (after redistribution).  As above, at the last election only one in three MPs elected to Westminster actually got more than 50% of votes cast.

One final point.  Many people who oppose AV do so on the basis that 'AV leads to Coalition Government . . . '  Last time I looked Britain has a Coalition Government and that was from the first past the post system.

William Dartmouth

South West MEP

UK Independence Party