Is it Time For Change to Voting System?

When something has worked for over 100 years why change it?

We are talking about the political voting system in the UK. Britain is a country, which uses an outmoded first-past-the-post system. Some would argue that it ensures that only voters in marginal seats have any chance of representation in a general election

From a Wales perspective, we can look at some of the figures. There are 2,346,279 registered voters in Wales. Of those only 56% turned out to vote. An incredible 1,027,203 people did not vote.

1,319,076 votes were cast and Labour benefitted from what is now increasingly looking like an outdated and some would argue vastly unfair voting system.

The 2024 general election saw the largest gap between the number of votes cast and seats won by a party, with Labour winning 64% of the seats despite receiving 34% of the votes. This has led to calls for electoral reform, with some arguing that the first-past-the-post system is flawed and favours major parties at the expense of smaller ones.

If the single transferable vote (STV) system used in Australian Senate elections were applied to the 2024 UK general election along with compulsory voting the result would have been significantly different. The STV system would have allowed voters to rank their preferences, potentially leading to a more proportional distribution of seats.

The Green Party and Reform UK, which received 7% and 14% of the vote respectively, won only 1% of the seats each.

Richard Tice of Reform UK complained on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday of the “injustice” that his party had received millions of votes but only five seats in Parliament.

What are your thoughts? Should the voting system be changed? Did you vote and are satisfied with the results? Did you decide not to vote and if so why?

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