How PR ‘completely transformed’ New Zealand politics: Metiria Turei, Green Party co-leaderIn 1996, New Zealand introduced the Mixed Member Proportion (MMP) voting system – a mixed FPTP and proportional list voting system. It was a big step forward for the fight for fair votes everywhere. I...Posted 06 Apr 2017
How will the 2017 French presidential election work?After last year’s political whirlwind, attention has turned to 2017’s elections for evidence of further shocks. Voters are going to the polls in the Netherlands, in Germany but most attention is focused on France, whose...Posted 13 Jan 2017
Missing in Richmond: voter choiceWell, the results are in. Campaigners campaigned, and voters voted. But not all was well. Because the elephant in the room in this by-election was the absence of something that should be a given in...Posted 02 Dec 2016
Building a stronger National Assembly, or why ‘We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat…’Given the tidal waves that have rocked our politics this year, it may seem an unusual time to be discussing the need for more Assembly Members. In a year of populist shocks and rhetoric, the...Posted 01 Dec 2016
Maine makes history as first state to back fair votesAs the world analyses the result of the US Presidential election, there’s one result you might have missed. On Tuesday one state made a symbolic breakthrough: Maine became the first US state to scrap First...Posted 09 Nov 2016
How Trump could win the Presidency even if he doesn’t win the most votesIt’s election day in the United States, and that means all the pageantry and spectacle one comes to expect with democracy in the world’s most powerful nation. The spectacle of a US election also reminds...Posted 08 Nov 2016
Electoral reform is making waves across the AtlanticThere’s something in the air, it seems. As I write, electoral reformers in Canada and the US have a real chance of securing a fairer voting system. As US voters prepare to pick their next...Posted 03 Nov 2016
Calling for ‘progressive alliances’ is brave. But it should never be necessaryThis article was first published at LabourList Last week, three Labour MPs did something that takes courage. In calling for Labour to stand aside in Richmond Park, they were pushing for a more collaborative form...Posted 31 Oct 2016
Forget standing down in Richmond: parties shouldn’t have to make that choiceThis article was published on Politics.co.uk Almost as quickly as Zac Goldsmith announced his resignation this week, talk turned to the other parties in the race: should they clear the way for a candidate with a...Posted 27 Oct 2016
PR across the pond: the push for fair votes in the USThis week is European Local Democracy Week 2016, and to mark it, we’re running a series of discussion articles on how to make the London Assembly more democratic. Yesterday we published our first piece in the series,...Posted 11 Oct 2016