In Poll Position
Peter Catterall dives into the history of the alphabet soup in which electoral reform has become enmired.
Britain, after a century of stability, has moved swiftly to having greater variety in its electoral systems than most other countries in the world. Variations on the Additional Member System (AMS) for Scotland and Wales and a closed-list system for European elections have all been introduced in 1999. The London mayor is to be elected by Supplementary Vote whilst the Jenkins Commission has proposed ‘AV plus’ (the Alternative Vote with additional top-up members) for Westminster elections, while the Single Transferable Vote (STV) remains in place in Northern Ireland.
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