Why do so many parties use transferable voting for their leadership elections? The 27th of March sees the announcement of the results of the SNP leadership election. As we wrote a few weeks ago, the SNP uses the Alternative Vote to elect their leader – and they’re... Posted 24 Mar 2023
How do Finland’s elections work? On Sunday 2nd April, voters in Finland will go to the polls to elect a new parliament. Finland’s parliament, known locally as the Eduskunta, contains exactly 200 MPs. 199 of these are elected by Party... Posted 20 Mar 2023
How many countries around the world use proportional representation? This article was updated in January 2025. Proportional representation is the most popular form of democracy for countries in the world today. Proportional Representation isn’t one electoral system though, it’s the simple idea that the... Posted 20 Mar 2023
How we could make the House of Lords gender equal overnight It is a quiet scandal that 105 years after women first won the vote they are still grossly under-represented in Parliament. Women make up just over a third of MPs in the Commons and the... Posted 08 Mar 2023
What elections should the next government reform? Last week we published a blog on UK electoral reforms since 1997 and highlighted that whilst at Westminster the fight for electoral reform continues, the progress of reform across the UK increased and voters are... Posted 08 Mar 2023
What Electoral reforms have there been since 1997? While the need for reforming Westminster’s First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system is getting clearer every day, outside Westminster the process of reform has been slowly, but surely, going in the right direction. While... Posted 02 Mar 2023
How did Denmark get proportional representation? Denmark today is home to one of the most proportional voting systems in the world, but, for a long time, elections to the Danish Folketing took place using First Past the Post. So why and... Posted 01 Mar 2023
How do elections work in Estonia? Estonia is undoubtedly one of eastern Europe’s biggest success stories since the collapse of communism – its economy has developed quickly (with a GDP (PPP) per capita now on a par with Japan) and it... Posted 25 Feb 2023
Here’s how SNP leadership elections work The deadline for contenders to put themselves forward for the next SNP leadership passed at midday on the 24th February, so it is now confirmed there are three potential future leaders. Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes... Posted 24 Feb 2023
Why will the government’s voter ID scheme cost us up to £180,000,000 a decade? Making it harder for people to vote is an expensive business. The government’s impact assessment of the Elections Act suggested the new scheme demanding certain forms of ID at polling stations could cost up to... Posted 22 Feb 2023