This May the UK will hold our first national referendum since the 1970s, when we decide whether to change the electoral system used to elect MPs to the House of Commons. The choice in the referendum is simple: keep our current system of First Past the Post (FPTP); or switch to the Alternative Vote (AV).
It is a hard sell persuading students and young people to vote no to reform, particularly when the current system has its flaws. FPTP can be disproportional and traditionally favours the two larger parties. However, that does not mean we should vote for electoral reform merely for the sake of it – if we change the system, it must be to a viable alternative that solves the problems of FPTP. The referendum is therefore not just a value judgment on the current system – the essential question is whether AV would be a positive improvement and a worthwhile reform.
The answer is empathically no. AV is a discredited electoral system that has failed in the very few countries to use it. Currently only Australia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji use AV for national elections, and Fiji is scrapping it after just 13 years.
There is a reason why AV is so unpopular. It is wildly unpredictable, producing hung parliaments during close elections but magnifying landslide victories so that the winning party is left with unassailable majorities. Indeed, the Jenkins Report on electoral reform concluded that it was in fact more disproportional than FPTP. It is also unfair – the winner is not always elected and supporters of minority parties in effect get their vote counted multiple times – meaning that not everyone’s vote is worth the same.
AV is also a complicated system and studies have shown that as a consequence it leads to a greater number of spoilt ballot papers and also lower turnouts. The Australian government introduced compulsory voting in the 1920s to combat voter apathy brought about by the switching the electoral system to AV.
Perhaps most pertinently during a time of cuts in public spending, introducing AV would be expensive – costing up to £250m to re-educate voters and to install vote-counting machines. This would be money wasted on a discredited system that could be used on schools, hospitals or indeed, funding higher education.
Therefore, given the inherent problems with introducing AV, why is the coalition government even asking us the question? It is certainly not because the Lib Dems want it, as it falls far short of their long-stated goal of proportional representation. Indeed, less than a year ago Nick Clegg said that he would not settle for the ‘miserable little compromise’ of AV if it was offered as part of a coalition agreement. Furthermore, the Electoral Reform Society, one of the big-money pressure groups which are bankrolling the Yes Campaign, described AV as ‘not suitable for the election of a parliament’. If even the Yes Campaigners do not want AV, why do they think it is good enough for us?
The referendum on AV is intrinsically linked with the promises the Lib Dems broke in order to get into government. Just like the commitment not to increase tuition fees, they abandoned another key principle – real electoral reform – for a taste of power and are now disingenuously presenting AV as a desirable alternative.
This newfound championing of the system is also undoubtedly driven by self-interest. The experience of last May has awoken the Lib Dems to the fact that hung parliaments mean that they, and not the British people, will choose the next government. AV would take power away from the voters and hand it to the politicians.
No to AV is the non-partisan campaign to stop the introduction of AV in May’s referendum. We are a diverse group – made up of those who defend the current system as well as those who would like to see real reform and the introduction of PR – but one united in the belief that AV is demonstrably inferior to the current system and that this is a matter which transcends party politics as it is too important to ignore.
We have a growing network of student groups and supporters and there are many ways for you to get involved, such as holding a street stall on your campus, or hosting a debate on AV. Many universities are already holding events designed to educate their students on the issue.
AV is not real reform – it is the voting system nobody wants, for many good reasons. To join our campaign and to help stop it then please visit www.no2av.org.