The Strengths and Weaknesses of the British Electoral System as Used in The General Election

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The Strengths and Weaknesses of the British Electoral System as Used in The General Election

For many, many years, the first past the post electoral system has

been used in Britain.

Since it has been used for so long, it should surely mean that it is a

success?

This is not necessarily true, as over the past few years criticism of

the system has been

growing and a search for an alternative been started.

The main concern about the system is that it is not fair. It is

possible for a party, who gain few votes, to get a huge majority of

seats. For example, in the 2001 elections, in Colchester the liberal

democrats won 2 more seats than the conservatives, despite the fact

that the conservatives got 39.5% of the vote and the Liberal democrats

got just 34.5% Also in Croydon, for the third election in a row, the

wrong party has won. In this area Labour won 5 more seats than the

conservatives, yet the conservatives got 7% more of the vote.

For this reason, it has been said that first past the post is not at

all fair, and does not reflect the true feelings or opinions of the

voters.

Another fact that shows that the feelings and opinions of the voters

are not taken into account, is that thousands of votes throughout the

country are put to waste as if their candidate does not win his

constituency then their votes will be disregarded. It is therefore

possible for a winning candidate in a constituency to get more votes

against him, rather than for him. And so the victor cannot truly claim

that he has the full support of the people within the whole

constituency.

The same is true at a national level. In the '97 general election

Labour got 43.2% of the total votes cast. But, the combined number of

votes for the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats represented

47.5% of the voters. Therefore Labour could not truly claim they were

the people’s party, as the majority of the people throughout Britain

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