News and Comment

The latest news and commentary from the Electoral Reform Society.

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How did New Zealand get proportional representation?

Prior to 1996, MPs were elected to New Zealand’s House of Representatives using the same unrepresentative First Past The Post (FPTP) system that is used to elect MPs to the UK’s House of Commons. Since...

Posted 02 Aug 2022

New Zealand’s journey provides lessons for the UK

Johnson’s resignation honours list will last a lifetime

With the Prime Minister set to exit Downing Street in the near future, attention has turned to who’s staying behind: his resignation honours list. It is tradition for departing PMs to create new life peerages...

Posted 28 Jul 2022

These are lifetime passes with exclusive access to the corridors of power

Proportional representation would end the scourge of tactical voting

The losses in Wakefield and in Tiverton and Honiton, where the Liberal Democrats overturned a 24,000 Conservative majority, were both the result of declining support for Johnson’s government, but also it would appear, the result of widescale tactical voting....

Posted 03 Jul 2022

Tactical voting is often presented as the answer, but the truth is it is just a symptom

Jersey’s new electoral system has first outing

Two years ago, the Electoral Reform Society looked at the island of Guernsey’s new voting system where voters had to choose up to 38 candidates in a single island-wide ‘thirty-eight past the post’ election. But...

Posted 23 Jun 2022

Jersey 2022 even a simplified plurality system will still lead to unfair, distorted results