different electoral systems

FPTP overview

• FTFP is a system where the candidate with the most votes will be elected and does not have to win by a certain majority

• FPTP is used in UK GEs, where voters cast one vote for their preferred candidate, and the candidate with the largest number of votes in a constituency (seat) will be elected to Parliament as an MP

  • There are 650 constituencies in the UK

  • The party with the most seats can form a government

advantages of FPTP

• FPTP often leads to a strong government with a clear mandate to carry out its policies because the winning part can win a clear majority

• FPTP gives voters a clear choice and promotes a system where 2 parties dominate

  • In 1997 Blair carried out constitutional reforms after a large election victory where Labour won 418 seats

• FPTP provides strong representation in the UK with small constituencies having a single MP to represent their interests

  • MPs hold surgeries to listen to their needs and offer advice

• FPTP is simple and easy for voters to understand because voters choose one candidate with a single vote, and the winning party is the one with the most seats

disadvantages of FPTP

• FPTP is not a proportional system as votes do not translate into seats - FPTP benefits parties with concentrated support, whilst parties with more thinly spread support win fewer seats

  • E.g. 2024 GE - Labour won 33.7% of the vote and gained 411 seats, Reform UK won 14.3% of the vote and gained only 5 seats, Lib Dems won 12.2% of the vote and gained 72 seats

• There is limited choice for some voters in FPTP because many seats are safe seats where the MP has a secure majority and it is very unlikely that another candidate will win the election

  • Theresa May’s constituency, Maidenhead, is a safe seat with the Conservatives winning over 60% of the vote in 2017

• People voting other parties may feel as though their vote is wasted

  • In 2017, the North East Fife Constituency saw 67% of votes wasted for losing candidates with the SNP winning the constituency by a majority of 2 votes

• FPTP often results in government being elected with a minority of the popular vote, which weakens the government’s mandate

• People may also consider a government with a minority of the popular vote as being unrepresentative of the will of the people

  • As MPs only need to win by one more vote than other candidates, they can be elected with a minority of the popular vote

single transferable vote (STV) overview

• STV divides a country into multi-member constituencies

• Under a system of STV, voters number their choice of candidate in order of preference

• Candidates require a certain quota to be elected, which is calculated by dividing the total votes cast by (the number of seats contested in the constituency plus one), and then adding one (the Droop formula)

• If no candidate reaches the quota on the first round of voting then the candidate with the lowest votes is eliminated and the second preference of voters supporting them are redistributed

advantages of STV

• STV offers a large choice for voters become multi-member constituencies mean that voters can choose between candidates from the same party and from different parties

  • In the 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) had 3 candidates and Alliance had 2 candidates standing in the Belfast East constituency

• STV encourages positive campaigning, because candidates wish to gain transferred votes from other candidates

• Under STV, votes and seats are highly proportional to one another

  • Parties with a more thinly distributed vote can win seats unlike in FTFP

  • There are fewer wasted votes because voters second preferences are transferred to another candidate if their first preference is eliminated

disadvantages of STV

• In STV, the link between members and voters can be weak because there are many members representing the same constituents rather than one member

• The voting system is more complicated than FTFP and takes longer to reach a final result, particularly if there are many rounds of counts where candidates are eliminated

• Donkey voting can take place where voters rank the candidates in the order they appear on the ballot paper, rather than ordering based on their preference

• Following the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly elections, STV has continued to produce a proportional, fragmented party system requiring cross-community cooperation to form stable government

 

FPTP vs. STV - strength of government

• FPTP is likely to produce a government with a stronger mandate to govern than under STV

• Under STV a coalition government is most likely which can lead to instability and less effective policymaking than under a FTFP system which can produce a one party winner

  • A coalition government is a government made up of more than 1 party

• STV can also result in a minority government which is a government that runs the country but without a majority of seats in the legislature

FPTP vs. STV - choice of candidates

• FPTP offers voters a limited choice of candidates, with one candidate per party in each constituency

• STV offers more choice with voters able to choose between multiple candidates from the same party

FPTP vs. STV - outcome fairness

• FPTP is less proportional in transferring votes into seats, whilst STV translates votes into seats more fairly

• Under STV smaller parties and parties with a more thinly spread support are better represented than under FPTP

FPTP vs. STV - representative link

• FPTP provides a strong link between politicians and the voters who they represent

  • Under FPTP in the UK GE, there are small constituencies with a single MP to represent them

• STV can provide a weaker link between representatives and voters because of large multi-member constituencies where many members represent the same constituents

  • In the Northern Ireland Assembly elections, there are 5 members representing each constituency

additional member system (AMS) overview

• AMS is an electoral system where voters have two votes: one vote for their constituency representative using FPTP and a second vote for a party list in order to elect an additional representative

• The party list uses multi-member regional constituencies and a party’s list of candidates is published before the election

• After the FPTP style voting for constituency representatives has been counted, additional members are added proportionally based  on the proportion of voting support for each party so that parliament more closely matches how the country voted

• Additional members are added to regional constituencies to match how the constituencies voted, and may increase a party’s representation in the area if they had a lot of support but couldn’t win against safe seats

AMS - Scottish Parliament

• In Scottish Parliament elections, 73 members are elected by FPTP, whilst 56 seats are filled by using list members

• The 56 additional members are allocated to 8 regional seats, and there are 7 additional members per region

• The number of additional members each party gets depends on the proportion of votes they receive in an election

advantages of AMS

• AMS ensures there is a strong link between the MP elected by the FPTP vote and their constituents who directly vote for them

• AMS has a proportional element to it through proportionally assigning seats to parties from the lists based on the number of votes for each party

• AMS gives voters more choice because they can use one vote for an MP they support and another to support a party of their choosing

  • Voters can vote for a ‘split ticket’ where they support an MP from one party and use their party list vote to support a different party

disadvantages of AMS

• Smaller parties are less well represented under AMS than in an entirely proportional system because the party list system can advantage the largest parties

  • In Wales, there are a small number of top-up seats, which favours the Labour party

• Party list candidates have less legitimacy than members elected by the FPTP vote because they aren’t directly elected with a personal mandate from voters

• AMS lacks democratic transparency because the party decides who is on the party list and ranks the order of candidates

supplementary vote (SV) overview

• In the SV system, a voter has a first and second preference vote with a candidate elected for winning more than 50% of the first preference votes

• If no candidates win over 50% of the vote, then all candidates are eliminated except the top 2, who will have second preference votes allocated to decide the winner

• As of 2026, SV is no longer used in UK election and has been replaced by FPTP under the Elections Act 2022

advantages of SV

• SV is a simple voting system because voters only need to select a first and second preference through marking two Xs rather than writing multiple numbers

• SV stops candidates winning through having a small level of support and encourages more positive campaigning as candidates need the second preference votes of other parties

  • SV ensures large support for the winning candidate such as with Sadiq Khan winning 56.8% of the total vote in the 2016 London Mayor election

disadvantages of SV

• Votes can be wasted because voters only choose 2 candidates meaning that many votes can be excluded from the final count if their top 2 candidates are eliminated

  • In the 2012 London Mayor election, 15% of votes were wasted in round 1, and over 7% in round 2

• SV is not proportional to the wishes of a region - only 1 candidate is elected, rather than multiple proportionally reflecting the wishes of the voters

• The winning candidate does not require an absolute majority of votes and so can be elected with minority support - they just need the most votes in total after the second round

reasons SV was abolished

• Lack of true proportionality as it still produces one winner, even If they lack majority support

• More complicated than FPTP for the lay voter to understand

• Limited impact of second preferences

• Critics argued SV did not significantly improve legitimacy over FPTP